Jeff finds himself in Washington DC on business trying to close a big deal for his company where he meets up with Nancy again, the FBI agent he had fallen in love with in Atlanta nearly two years ago. Jeff is separated from his wife because of Nancy
Chapter 31 of
Wednesday, 10:28 AM: A New Career Path
The congressman
finds out Jeff was wired! The General gives the congressman a generous retirement. The General tells
Jeff to say hi to Omar, one of the Iranians!
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- Chris Lamela
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Author contact: Chris Lamela,
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K Street, Chapter 31
Wednesday, 10:28 AM:
A New Career Path
A New Career Path
They hugged again, she whispered into his ear, “Thank you. Thank you for
being you.”
“So can you do this?” they
pulled back.
“Yes.”
“No more outbursts?”
“I don’t promise that with Earl!” they both laughed.
“But seriously, you can probably sit this out.”
“No way, I wouldn’t miss if for the world.”
“Okay, then let’s go back down.” Jeff
leaned over pulling out a wad of tissues from the box on the nightstand handing
them to her. He reached again pulling out an enormously huge wad stuffing them
into his pants pockets smiling at her, looked at the box pulling out another
huge wad stuffing them into his other pocket, “This is just in case you need to
talk to Earl again.”
“What’s tissues got to do with Earl?”
He smiled to her, they turned left out the door, “Well, it’s either for
my ears to protect my hearing when you yell at him again,” she giggled as they
approached the stairs, he leaned to her in a whisper, “or for you to shove down
his throat,” she burst out laughing so loud that Jeff could hear the echo from
the tall ceiling above them.
They came down the stairs, every
head turned to them in wonder at the laughter, they shrugged with secret smiles
to each other.
Jeff looked around the faces, “Where’s Arnie?”
“Oh, he asked you to meet him in the dining room,” a hand pointed toward
the door on the opposite wall.
“Nancy
“It’s what Arnie said, yes.”
They turned toward the dining room stepping up to the door, without knocking
opening it, stepping in. Arnie turned to them, “Oh, good, come on in guys,
we’re just having a little discussion. Come on in, sit down.”
Jeff followed Nancy
Jeff looked around the table seeing Arnie, Roger the congressman, Tom
McAllister, and the General.
Arnie turned to the General, “Okay, we’re all here. I’m sorry General,
can you continue?”
“Yes,” the General’s brusque voice made it clear to Jeff that this
wasn’t going to be good news for somebody, “as I was about to say, we reviewed
the tape from the other night,” glancing at the congressman, “the one with you
and your colleagues―”
The congressman shot a stabbing face at Jeff, “You were wired! You were
wired!” jumping to his feet pointing accusingly at Jeff who shrank back in his
chair at this sharp tone. “God, how could we be so stupid!” his eyes flailed wildly around the room settling again on
Jeff.
Arnie put up his hands, “Roger, sit down! There have been a lot of questions about ODS and your
involvement, we needed to get some inside, he was just doing what we asked.”
Roger scowled at Jeff, “You
little prick! Who do you think you are to show up out of nowhere and do that!”
Now Jeff was mad having his fill
of arrogant congressmen, “Don’t you dare to talk to me that way! Who do you
think you are?”
Arnie’s voice was raised, “Guys, stop it!” turning to Roger, “Roger, I
said sit down. He has nothing to do with this.” Arnie motioned to the General,
“Can you give us a hand here?” The General shrugged looking amused. Roger
continued standing glaring at Jeff. “ROGER! SIT DOWN!” the room reeled from
Arnie’s shout, Roger jerked his head toward Arnie who spoke more softly,
“Roger. Sit down. Now.”
Roger glanced around the room like he was seeking support from some
quarter, seeing it wasn’t forthcoming his sat down slowly, head lowered.
The General nodded to Arnie, did his ceremonial throat clearing looking
sternly at Roger, “Now if you will let me finish, we have listened closely to
the tape, many times in fact. I understand that the ODS office was destroyed
yesterday, that it will take a lot of effort to reconstruct all the doings at
ODS,” his expression tightened, “but we are patient people, we have the best
analysts on the planet. There is nothing we can’t reconstruct. Iran-Contra was
mine.” His expression got even more stern, “Do you remember that little affair?
We can trace money anywhere no matter
how hard you try to cover your trail. We will find it.”
“This man here,” the General pointed to Tom, “knows that if he doesn’t
cooperate that he has prison in his future,” Tom shriveled in his chair. “I
know he’s going to cooperate so that we can get to the bottom of this.” He
leaned forward as though to punctuate his next words, “Are my words clear to
you?”
Roger’s sudden deflation told Jeff that Roger knew he was cornered.
“Now congressman, it’s not my job to tell others how to do their jobs,
nobody in this room has the authority to tell you what to do,” the General
glanced around the room, motioned with his hand toward Tom, “and I’m not all
that interested in throwing people into prison, but I do worry that when we get
to the bottom of this that we’ll find out where that rocket launcher came from
when we did our little foray into Iraq during Desert Storm. And a whole lot of
other gear we keep finding every time we turn around.”
The General sat back with a sigh, “And God I hate it, how it gets all
ugly when the media gets hold of these things. Lots of people get hurt,
families get torn apart. I hate it.”
Jeff felt the air being sucked out of the room, suddenly feeling like he
was gasping for air, like someone had attached a giant vacuum hose to the door,
that they were all going to suffocate.
He gasped.
The General glanced at Jeff’s sound turning back to Tom and the
congressman. “So here’s what I am going to suggest
that you both do. First you, Tom,” turning to face him.
“You render a valuable service to us, you know lots of people and have a
good reputation for getting things done.” Tom’s pose perked up at these
encouraging words. “But Tom, we’ve got to
get you back on our side. I have an
assistant, you will have a meeting with him next week. He’s a two-star, knows
your business backwards.” Tom nodded anxiously, the General sat back. “Tom, out
of respect for the good things you have done for us, that is the right good things you’ve done for us I’m going to allow you to stay in this deal,”
signaling toward Jeff, “and the terms will be unchanged. I will also allow you
to lead the follow-on deal with the Iranians if that happens.” He leaned
forward pointing his finger sharply at Tom, “But if I hear that you do a single
side-ways deal that hasn’t been personally approved by me I will take no
prisoners.” He sat back with a smirk, “No that’s the wrong phrase, now isn’t
it?” Then back serious, “What I meant to say is that I will make you a
prisoner.”
The General sat back trying to read Tom’s expression who returned a weak
smile, “Yes, General, thank you sir, I promise that I will earn your trust
again. And thank you for letting me stay in this deal, I’ve worked very hard on
this. Thank you sir,” Tom extended his hand across the table, the General gave
a brush-off wave with his left hand.
Turning to the congressman the General gave a low growl, “As for you, I
think it’s time that you consider a new career path.”
“You mean quit congress? Quit congress!” Roger nearly shrieked.
“It’s your choice, of course, I can’t make you.” Leaning forward
intently the General scowled, “But make no mistake, I will ruin you.”
Roger’s panicked look around the room showed he felt the walls collapsing
on him.
“But hey,” the General’s tone suddenly lightened, “I’m not cruel!” He
turned to Arnie, signaling him to pass the envelope sitting in front of him.
Arnie slid a large envelope across the table, the General redirected it to the
congressman. “Go ahead, open it.”
Roger timidly tore open the top of the large envelope cautiously looking
inside, his expression turning to wonder. He reached in pulling out a stapled
set of pages with four of the now-familiar gilded Bearer Bond sheets, holding
them, carefully as if he was holding a baby.
“What is this?” his mouth was barely able to close it was so agape.
“It is a contract saying that you are voluntarily resigning your
position as a member of the House of Representatives for family reasons. That
will be going to mister Gingrich this afternoon. The next form is a promise
never to be involved in arms sales of any kind, that form will stay with me. The
next set of pages is the non-disclosure agreement―you are never to mention any of this to anyone
is that understood? And I mean nobody.”
Roger nodded, his jaw still dropped. “The colorful pages there are four million
thanks you’s for your fine service to your country.”
“I don’t…I don’t understand…what is this?”
“Roger, you’re a smart man, I can tell. You just got yourself mixed up
in some things that got you in over your head. The president will have my head
on a platter if I bring him another round of some damned Oliver North sitting
in front of you guys. I’d be put out to pasture so fast I’d be eating sheep
shit for dinner tonight!”
“Someone get the man a pen,” he motioned toward Roger. “Sorry, Roger,
but you don’t get copies of any of it.” Roger’s pen made strokes on the pages, he
flipped to the next, signed again. He pushed the papers across the table to the
General who took the printed pages reaching for his briefcase, opened it laying
them inside, closing the briefcase, spinning the combination dials near the
handle.
“I still don’t get it. Paying me…”
“Like I said, it’s our thanks,” with
a mild smile, “and to be fair. We’re cutting off your livelihood. It’s likely
that you probably did something in all your deals that were actually helpful to us.” The General looked at his watch,
“Look, it’s late, I’ve got to be back at the Pentagon in a half-hour,” standing
up this time offering his hand to Tom and the former congressman, turning to
Arnie, Nancy and Jeff who all stood up to take his hand, “and thanks to all of
you, you’ve done a really fine job. Now forget about this and go get your
shooter.”
“What about the Iranians?” words popped out of Jeff’s mouth.
“Oh, and those bastards, yeah, I suppose,” he growled, “but say hi to
Omar for me. Tell him that my wife’ll be in touch about the barbeque next
month.”
A laugh burst from Jeff’s mouth, “Barbeque?”
“Sure, my daughter and he used to date when they were at Stanford. Too
bad, I really thought he’d make a great son-in-law back then,” he shook his
head, “but not now I suppose,” shaking his head again, a nervous chuckle emerging
in the room. A second later he was gone.
Roger sat down slowly, picking up the bonds. “Wow, who’da thought when I
woke up this morning that I wouldn’t be a congressman any more and rich by
lunchtime?”
The congressman and Tom stood starting for the door, Arnie waved to him,
“Tom, no, you can’t leave, we need you this afternoon,” turned with a sweeping
motion of his hand at Roger, “but Roger I need you out of here, we have work to
do.”
Roger stood up walking around the table to
the door, turned around looking like he knew he should say something. “Well,
uh, I guess I should go.” He turned toward the door. “Yeah, go.”
The door closed, Arnie laughed talking through the door, “Yeah, go enjoy
your new career path!” they all enjoyed a good cleansing laugh.
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K STREET!
http://chrislamela.blogspot.com/2012/09/k-street-chapter-32.html
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