Jeff, finds himself in
Chapter 10 of Magic Town ...
Saturday, 5:02 PM: The Press Conference
Jeff discovered that he is the absolute spitting image of the crooked Congressman, Frank Schedz, and Nancy has convinced him to play along. Now he finds himself standing at a podium bristling with microphones with letters like ABC and CNN on them where he us about to fire a warning shot that will light up the bad guys!
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Magic Town, Chapter 10
Saturday, 5:02 PM: The Press Conference
A minute later Jeff was in the elevator surrounded by heavily armed men in trench coats who didn’t say a single word to either of them. A few seconds later the door opened.
Jeff could hear the din of what sounded like a hundred voices talking softly somewhere down the hallway.
Shonna motioned to her escorts to go on ahead, turned to Jeff while pulling out the bottle of Budweiser from her coat pocket. Jeff laughed, she said, “Down you go!” handing him the bottle. “Details!” she said with a grin. He twisted open the bottle, she reached for the cap, he gulped it down tossing the empty into the trash can next to him as he noticed a man standing down the hallway watching them. Shonna reached into the bin, pulled it out putting it back into her coat pocket. “You may look like him, but you don’t have the same fingerprints.”
“Details?” Jeff frowned, she nodded.
They walked a few feet. She stopped, turning to him to give one more inspection. “Remember the voice, and relax.” She glanced over his shoulder at the room filled with reporters. “Don’t worry about the smile, there’s not a lot to smile about here.” She stood behind him as he turned to face the corridor leading to the press conference. She leaned forward to speak softly into his right ear, “You saw those men that brought you up here. There’s nothing to worry about here, they are stationed all over the place. You are completely safe.” He glanced at her, she gave a soft smile. “Ready?” He nodded. “Have your speech?” He pulled it out of his pocket wafting with congressman’s smelly cologne. “Okay then, show time!”
She took his arm leading him through the door into a large room, instantly he was surrounded by his escort. She turned away, another man walked up to Jeff to lead him up to a podium bristling with microphones. He stepped forward to the podium cringing when he saw CNN on one microphone, ABC on another, all the others some other numbers or letters.
Jeff walked up to the podium looking up to see that they were in a large atrium with a huge sloping glass ceiling above them. The room echoed with voices. His only thought was wondering what was going to come next. Now here he was about to walk out in front of the world to impersonate a man he had never met, until this morning had never even heard his name. Some congressman from some place that he knew very little about. Or nothing. He laughed to himself at all the self-importance that congressmen exuded when they were absolutely unimportant to those that didn’t know them and only minimally important to the people who did.
Jeff stood for a second in wonder, starting to feel the buzz of that last beer. The room started to quiet. He looked down to the paper in his hand.
He cleared his throat, the room went silent.
“Thank you all for coming here on such short notice. I look around and see a lot of familiar faces from the media, I know that you would all rather be home with your families on a Saturday, and I thank you for coming. The purpose of this press conference is that there have been urgent developments that I feel I need to talk about today.” He cleared his throat again seeing a bottle of drinking water in front of him wishing he could take a sip. The lid was still sealed, he didn’t want to fuss with it so he continued, “For the last ten months I have been cooperating with federal law enforcement in a wide ranging investigation of official corruption in the greater Atlanta area.”
A buzz of voices rose in the room.
“The focus of this investigation has been a number of city officials including the Atlanta mayor’s office, the city council, a number of city agencies, and the Atlanta
The buzz foamed into a small roar. Jeff raised his voice, suddenly becoming more self-conscious about the nasal thing though feeling more confident anyway. “Excuse me.” He raised his hands to quell the voices, leaned into the microphones clearing his throat again, “Excuse me!” The roar subsided. “I will be meeting with the FBI on Monday afternoon to provide a long list of names of officials who I and my staff, working with the FBI, have identified as the center of this scandal.” Jeff was surprised at the room’s perfect silence. “I expect that there will be an announcement as early as week’s end by the FBI that they have obtained the names and what their next actions will be.”
A mix of voices rose when one spoke out loudly, “Congressman Schedz, what has your involvement been?”
Jeff looked over to Shonna who motioned a slicing across her throat with her finger signaling him to cut it off.
Jeff looked into the crowd as he folded his speech, “I’m afraid I can’t answer any questions, but I am sure you will get details in the FBI’s briefing this week.” He turned stepping from the podium, the sound in the room climbing with excited voices. Three escorts intercepted him before he could even get away from the podium, they were joined by the other men in trench coats. Jeff looked around for Shonna, she was nowhere to be seen.
In a minute he was stuffed into the back of a black limousine with the windows blackened, whisked away.
“Where are you taking me?”
The driver looked back over his shoulder. “Back to your hotel. There will be people to meet us there. Sit back, it’s just a few minutes.”
He looked back seeing that they were being followed by a big black car, he saw another ahead of them. An escort, Jeff thought.
As he sat back in the darkened silence of the space made for eight people his head churned with anxiety at the events of the day, how he had just walked from the podium announcing something he knew nothing about concerning people he had never met. Mayor? Chief of Police?
And all those guns!
Jeff shook his head muttering to himself.
“Jesus, what have I gotten myself into?”
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MAGIC TOWN!
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