Broken Protocol by Kay Hadashi

Author:Kay Hadashi [Hadashi, Kay]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2014-01-10T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty

A small group sat in a meeting room, some reclined back, others perched at the front edge of their seats. They all had their eyes trained on the flatscreen on the wall, watching a newscast.

“It has been almost two weeks since the daylight abduction of Jack Melendez from the G-8 summit meeting in Santiago, Chile. Since agreeing to take over the reins of America’s highest office and taking the oath of office, former Melendez running mate and Vice President Gallagher has filled in seamlessly as President.”

“Seamless? Screw that,” one man in a suit said. He closed out the newscast and brought up a new screen, one with a Naval uniformed man in his office, a caduceus as part of his brass. He waited quietly.

“Can we get Melendez back to work?” someone else asked.

“With that thing in his head? We still don’t know what it is.”

A woman with a severe face and dressed in a pressed blue suit stood. She took the remote in her hand and flicked off the flatscreen. “We’ve barely gone public with his return, or recovery, or however the press secretary spun it.”

“And that would be me,” a tall woman, also in a suit, said back. “I’m right here in the room with you. It is permissible to address me directly.”

She got a glare from the first woman. Both were old hands in the Washington DC political scene. The Secretary of State had been retained by the new President Gallagher from the previous administration, and the press secretary was an old hand in the White House. From the very beginning, they had not hit it off.

“Fine. What is your suggestion?” the Secretary of State asked sharply. “Just exactly what do we tell the American public about Jack Melendez, and his abduction by South American terrorists? Just exactly how to we tell the public he was dropped off in the Mojave Desert miles from nowhere? And just exactly how do we tell America the man they wanted in office has had surgery on his head by terrorists, and might have a bomb inside his brain?”

“We still have no idea the abductors were terrorists, or South American. No threats or demands have been made. And we have no idea of what that surgery was, except that something was implanted in the middle of his brain,” a man in a highly decorated military uniform said.

“Or what that device might be,” said someone in a suit.

The Secretary of State continued to stare down the press secretary. “Well? I’m waiting for an answer! Not only do we need to tell the public something, I need to take a lap around the world and convince everybody else we have everything under control.” She looked through a folder for a moment, at a few current pictures of the recent President-elect since his recovery from the desert. “Or at least we don’t have our heads up our butts playing motor boat.”

“Heads up our butts playing battleship, is more like it.” The press secretary swiveled her chair away to break eye contact.

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