“General? Thanks for meeting me here.”
Abe could see General Mossett shift in his chair- a thousand miles away.
“I’ve only got a few minutes before-“
“Then, I guess you should just be quiet and let me do the talking, then!”
The General’s eyes flared in anger.
“The old way of doing
things isn’t going to work for us any more.”
“What do you mean?” The General’s voice was now a low, threatening growl.
“Well, you probably know…I used to be an accountant…”
Mossett nodded.
“Well, I know numbers. I
had a look at the figures…What you spend to run this place-“
“That’s classified!”
“Yes, but not a very high level of “secret”… Is it…?”
“What?”
“I mean that it didn’t take my nephew long to hack into your records…”
“You couldn’t have!”
“True. I know numbers… My nephew, on the other hand… he knows computers…Can I finish? You said you didn’t have much time.”
The General made a motion with his hand before quietly conferring with someone off camera.
“I’ve gone over your books. You’re getting this…team ‘way too cheap. We’re worth a lot more. We need a raise.”
“Sorry Abe. I can’t do that. My hands are tied.”
“Really? Please think again. I doubt that you will have trouble finding a 50% bump in our expenses do- able. Afterall, we’re a pretty cheap endeavor, as government programs go.”
Mossatt sat back and crossed his arms.
“50%? That’s outrageous! I can’t authorize that.”
“Well, you pretty much have to. Can I finish now?”
“Go on…” The general looked suspicious now.
“We need more money- for training, better food, for help shopping. We need money for tutors. These are all good kids. And they’re getting short changed school- wise, especially Wesley. He’s been shunted from place to place since he manifested. Discrete tutors would help. A lot.”
“We have a deal. I can’t change it.”
“Your deal was with Mr. Torrance…ummm Titan. I gather he was a gym teacher in a high school before he manifested. And he changed over quite late. Didn’t you feel you were taking advantage? He was a gym teacher, not an economics professor. And speaking of poor Mr. Torrance, we shouldn’t have even had to ask for bullet proof vests. If we’re working for you, that should have been one of the first things you provided. Instead, he’s dead now.”
“Yes. That’ was too bad.”
“Too bad? Too bad? You heartless bastard!”
“I didn’t know that he was going to take such…chances.”
“What did you expect him to do? He was running an investigation for you!”
“Well, we gave him instructional DVDs…”
“Instructional DVDs? You callous prick! You sent him out with no real training?”
“He wanted to go- to make a difference.”
“Yeah…I don’t know if I believe you, but regardless, if you wish us to stay …associated with your agency, you’ll make these changes happen.”
“Sorry, you can’t change your circumstances… Maybe in a year or two.”
“Well, General, we don’t have a year or two. I’ll, I’ll give you 48 hours. We don’t need you to support us anymore. We’ll be happy to work with you on an equal basis, but we’re nobody’s slaves.”
“I’ll cut off your funding.”
“Do it. You’ll never hear from us again. We’ll start charging for our services. A la carte. Cities will pay. Other government agencies would love to have us! They’ll pay. We’ll become freelancers, consultants, but we won’t be under anyone’s thumb ever again. I’m sending you some figures. Please look at the cost analysis on page two…and three.” Abe pressed “send” on his computer. He waited a moment for the General to receive the file and open it.
“As you can see, it might become quite expensive to hire us on a per job basis, whereas, that 50% “bump” is probably looking pretty good to you right about now.”
“I’ll just have you
arrested.”
“No. No, you won’t. I’ve recorded all of this. I’ve documented everything. At
the very least, you’ll be removed for being incompetent. It’s already streamed
out to a number of sites: “Whistle blower, Tattletale, Governmental Oversight…
Youtube… that will release all of this information and more to the public in 48
hours. Only I can stop it….”
Abe looked at the General, who was clearly fuming.
“Do we have a deal?”
“I’ll get back to you.”
“Time waits for no man, General. I’m an old man. That is a truism that I know to be fact. Don’t wait ‘til the last minute. By the way, if you move on any of us, including my nephew or my sister, if I even have trouble getting in touch with them- and I will check- the information goes out immediately. Assume that I have all that the information on a deadman’s switch… Goodbye.”
Abe severed the connection.
The room held its breath, then suddenly exploded in cheers!
“You did it!”
“Yay, Abe!”
“Yeah, I think we’ve got
him…”
“Way to go O.D.!”
He looked around at his new friends.
“Well, we have some money… It looks like we’re going to get a better deal…” he paused. “Let’s go out and celebrate!”
“There’s a Denny’s just down the road!”
“Denny’s? Denny’s? No my friends, we need to find someplace better than Denny’s to celebrate!”
There weren’t a lot of choices that far out in the Mojave, but they did locate a Friday’s just outside of Barstow. That far out in the desert, a 40 minute drive is not unusual and their spirits were still high when the nondescript minivan pulled into the half filled parking lot.
Abe turned in the seat.
“Now everyone remember. There will be a lot of military types and there might be some of the rougher locals…If anyone asks, keep your answers short. Don’t elaborate. We’re a chess club on the way back from a conference. I’m you’re …guardian. Okay. Everybody ready?”
The kids exploded out of the car!
Abe followed as quickly as his knees would let him, patting the wad of money in his pocket. ‘Having all that cash sure does make a guy feel good!’, he thought, as he crossed the double threshold and heard: “Table for five? Right this way!”
More next week
Also, more in my website – Zaslow Crane writer
ZaslowCrane.com