"This concludes the news conference," said the President, stepping up to the mike, "since there seems to be no further substantive questions." The President and Cabinet members walked from the Press Room, leaving journalists waving hands and yelling unsolicited questions.
Clifford Winifred spoke freely to Paz in the corridor off the Press Room. "What the hell prompted that Spectator reporter to go up there in the first place? He could have been shot. And his accusations only encouraged the Covenant to react."
"I have no idea, sir. Morrison is different from other reporters," the General concluded. Paz always told the President what he wanted to hear, meanwhile, he had successfully planted the seed of truth.
"Let me in!" Clifford could hear his Vice President's booming voice beyond the Oval Office door. "No, I did not have an appointment," Margaret Sorenson opened the door, forcing her way by Chief of Staff Bennett. "Get out of my way."
Bennett followed, "Sir, she didn't have an appointment."
"That's okay, Luc," he said. Then he spoke to Sorenson, "I'm sure this is important if you feel you have to intrude."
"We need to speak alone," Sorenson insisted. Bennett closed the door but stayed inside. "Without him," voiced the Vice President as she rolled her eyes back toward the Chief of Staff.
Winifred nodded to Bennett. Bennett shut the door firmly as he left the room.
"I hate that sneaky pervert," Sorenson declared resolutely. She had always wanted to say that. The Vice President was fifty-nine years old with dark hair streaked by gray strands. She displayed a firm and sometimes charming personality; but this wasn't one of those times. She had served as governor in the state of California for only two terms before Clifford Winifred requested her as his running mate. He chose her because she was female, which appealed to the progressives, and because she was repulsively conservative, pandering to another constituency. As an African-American, she helped capture the urban vote. But California's fifty-four electoral votes were her most appealing quality. This assured Winifred's election in a very close, three-way race. In his Inaugural speech, the President vowed to use the talents of the Vice President as an active partner to ease the burden of his office. After three years, that promise had yet to be realized. She walked up and stood behind one of two, seventh century rosewood chairs bound in aged leather and studded with hand-forged nails. She clutched the top of a chair, imbedding her nails into the leather. "Are we alone?" she asked.
The peregrine falcon peered at her from behind its wrought-iron bars. Like its relatives in the hawk family, the bird's intense vision focused in on one's eyes, searching for fear. Sorenson never liked the creature and couldn't understand why anyone could appreciate such an aloof animal that projected contempt with every glance. She felt President Winifred surrounded himself with scheming personalities--individuals as well as animals.
"What's that supposed to mean?" President Winifred replied.
"Is this conversation being recorded?"
"I record nothing in this office. You'll just have to take my word on it, Ms. Sorenson. This couldn't have been addressed at a Cabinet meeting?"
"No. It couldn't." She circled the chair and sat down, pausing to look at the front of the desk before turning up to confront the President. "I need to know what you're doing in the North Country. What's your intelligence?"
"Ms. Sorenson, our only contact up there was made ill by his ex-wife-- And where do you get off needing to know anything? Just get to the point. I've got too much to do, to be sitting here listening to this."
"I know about Dixville. And I know about AutoMan. This crusade you're on in the Northeast has to stop. The troops are needed in the Amur Valley. The Russian problem you got us involved in hasn't gone away."
"Is this a threat?" Winifred spouted.
Sorenson got up and walked to the double doors in back and turned for a final word, "Steve Morrison will have company slinging accusations your way. The rest of the media can't ignore the Vice President's claim as well. I think it would start a congressional investigation before the elections. That wouldn't be good." Margaret Sorenson knew Winifred would do anything to stay in office.
Mr Smith
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Middle School E-Learning
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Kindle Novels for Android
Open Ground: After bullies harass William, he moves to Wyoming to live with his father. Open Ground explores the drama of human relationships through a boy's struggle to maintain family.
Later that summer, his father is falsely accused of a crime and jailed. William mountain-bikes across Wyoming to stay with his aunt -- applying the knowledge his father had imparted -- defying the perils of nature.
Topics in this middle school novel relate to math, science and technology with social themes applicable to grades 5 and 6 core curriculum. Free E-Learning kernels, available at Site3e.Com, are effective self-contained units. Forsaken Rock, a Kindle novel available at SmithLiterary.Com is applicable to grades 7 and 8 studies.(Kindle $0.99 at Amazon.Com.
Forsaken Rock: NASA Leadership decide to send criminals to their Mars colony for long-term incarceration. Rather than allow their world to be corrupted, settlers on the planet break ties with Earth to become an independent world. Mirrid Wolf inadvertently kills a young security man to protect her child.Eleven years later, the people of Earth invite Marian colonists to the Olympic Games. Mirrid oversees the Marian Team as recently elected Chief Council of the Red Planet. Toemoe Sol, head of Sol Corporation, contracts an assassin to disrupt the competition by shooting Mirrid's daughter, Daara. Marians are then blamed for a terrorist attack that kills over 300 spectators. Conflicts challenge Mirrid's untried leadership. (Kindle $2.99 at Amazon.Com.
Indivisible: The United States' economy has tumbled after two decades of fighting terrorism worldwide. An Army helicopter lands on a remote New Hampshire mountain. Troops witness an unbearable sight: sixty Cub Scouts slain by an unmanned automatic weapon intended to catch smugglers. The President orders the soldiers to depart immediately -- and maintain absolute secrecy. Cover-up of the Dixville massacre begins. The brutality to New Hampshire's children ignites national support for a rebellion to instate government reform. (Kindle $2.99 at Amazon.Com.
Alienable Rights: This novel champions the American family through the main character Traften Brown. He flees Boston with his baby after a confrontation with a gang leader. Traften finds a place in Vermont as a member of the Island Pond Covenant, a local organization formed to supply the community with food and medicine. As a former electrical engineering student at MIT, Traften designs a communication system for the Vermont group. They accept him in the community as their own. Leaving his daughter with a family in Island Pond, Traften returns to Boston and rescues Ruth. While in Boston, he rediscovers his heritage. A descendant of William Carney, a Congressional Medal of Honor recipient, Traften carries the medallion throughout the conflict. The heirloom haunts him, a reminder of forebears who had fought for him. Rather than abandon the city for an easier life in the North Country, he stays to confront his enemy. (Kindle $2.99 at Amazon.Com.
Blair Smith was born at home in the heart of Amish country in Holmes County, Ohio. He graduated from Ohio Northern University majoring in Technology and Education, later obtaining a Masters in Technology Education from the University of Vermont. A writer for ten years, the author has completed six novels that range from Science Fiction, to Thrillers, to a Middle School Reader.NEWS 3E
