“Alex, I think we have some of our little family here starting to show signs of affection for one another,” Sandi said.
“Oh really, I hadn’t noticed.”
“Of course not, men never do,” Sandi looked at Alex and he had the deer in the headlights look on his face. Or was it that he was so preoccupied with the struggles before them that he seemed detached from the moment?
Sandi decided these weren’t issues Alex should be concerned with and would let those issues reside with her to deal with them as they arose. Liz and Bill were definitely moving closer together and she suspected Tina and Lt. Commander Morris might be having their moments together as well. Since Alex was relying more and more on Mike Morris she arranged to have Morris assigned to a spare bedroom in the residence…maybe that would help.
Major Kemp, the base housing officer drove Elena and Andrade to the civilian processing office to get their id’s and the cash advance. When they entered the office and the Major explained what he wanted, the Air Force clerk said they would have to fill out six different forms and have their backgrounds checked by the FBI before he could do anything. Elena and Andrade looked at each other and sighed heavily.
“Uh, young man come here, you see these two people standing here; they are the personal guests of General Hanken. They are going to be here for quite some time, as opposed to you, who, when I tell General Hanken how you treated them, will undoubtedly end up counting penguin droppings on the North Slope of Alaska.”
“Uh, yes sir, I didn’t realize they were General Hanken’s guests, I’ll get this processed right away, just a couple of minutes, and how much cash advance did they want?”
“Two thousand.”
Once they had the id’s and the cash, the Major drove them over to the motor pool to pick out a vehicle. The motor pool sergeant was about to offer resistance in the form of paperwork, when Kemp informed him of the guest’s status with General Hanken. He gave them a staff officer car, with a prepaid unlimited gas credit card. The Major told them to follow him to their house, which they did. It was a three-bedroom home with a two-car garage, fully furnished, and stocked with groceries and household goods. Once in the house Elena and Andrade looked at each other.
“Andrade can you believe this?”
“Elena, we have aligned ourselves with an amazing individual, let’s not forget we are to attend dinner tonight at the residence.”
“Yes and I want to shower and clean myself up and you need to do the same.”
Sandi met Elena and Andrade as the Navy Seals escorted them in. Elena mentioned to Sandi she was embarrassed that she didn’t have any nicer clothes to wear to the dinner. Sandi told Andrade to go in and get a cocktail; she and Elena had something they needed to do. Sandi took Elena into her master suite and opened the door to a huge walk in closet.
“Elena you are almost the same size as me, maybe not as busty as I am, but let’s see, how about this nice dress, try it on,” Sandi instructed Elena.
“Dr. Chenowith I couldn’t impose like this,” Elena protested.
“First, drop the Dr. Chenowith, please call me Sandi. Second, you’re not imposing, now go, go on.” Sandi pointed her to the dressing room.
When dinner concluded, Alex announced that he wanted Ted and his two FBI agents, Commander Morris, Elena and Andrade to join him in the communication room shortly before eight. Everyone else could enjoy the rest of the evening.
All the people he had asked to gather in the communications room were present. He told them he was placing a call to Admiral Torrance in a few minutes. After learning that Alex had liberated all the facilities, Torrance had called back in a panic, pleading with Sandi to have Alex return his call. It was something he wanted all of them to witness, and afterwards to give their impression of Torrance’s demeanor. Alex dialed the Admiral’s number.
“Admiral Torrance, General Hanken.”
“Alex, what have you done?”
“Admiral Torrance, how dare you ask me such a question,” the room was silent, the tension spiked as Alex responded instantaneously. “When it is you who have dared to desecrate all of our fallen heroes from past wars by this cowardly act, from the Revolutionary War up to the Iraq War, all who gave the ultimate sacrifice to our country for what it stood for have been grievously betrayed by your actions. Your actions led to the deaths of Marine and joint force soldiers who bravely carried out their orders, and what did they die for? No, Admiral it’s not what I have done, it’s what you have done and there can never be an excuse for a military leader such as yourself to act in such a despicable manner.” Alex sat silent, he waited, there was a long silence, it could almost be heard that Torrance was trying to recover from Alex’s rebuke.
“I see you have been busy, that’s no surprise to me, but I’m devastated that you have turned against me, after I placed such a premium on your loyalty and told you so just a few short weeks ago.”
“Admiral, you have a choice, forego this dangerous adventure, and I will see to it you are treated with dignity, or continue on this path and I will fight you to the end. My prayer is you don’t act in some provocative manner that causes one more drop of American blood to be shed. I know for a fact this is not your doing; that very powerful people have propped you up as their surrogate. Admiral, these people don’t care about America, they don’t care about you or me, and all they care about is their power and their money. It is beyond me you couldn’t see through this.”
“Alex, I love you like a son, and I know in my heart you will win this battle, but know this, we are committed to changing this country. I strongly believed you and I could have remade this country into the greatest nation on this planet. Tomorrow night I will be giving a speech nationwide to outline how I plan to transform this country, I hope you will listen in and reconsider,” the Admiral finished.
“Admiral, my one word to you is——never,” Alex hung up.
“Holy shit Alex, he sounded like he was resigned to losing,” Ted observed.
“I agree with Ted, he underestimated you, and you stunned him with your complete rejection,” Commander Morris stated.
“I think he knows that he is up against the wrong person, and the people behind him may very well replace him as soon as they sense that,” Elena joined in.
“Yeah, and it could lead to some very ugly situations,” Somers said.
“General, who do you think is behind him?” Evans asked.
“Well Bill, I think it has to be some very high up corporate people, possibly an opposition party person or persons, it’s got to be seven or eight people at least,” Alex guessed. More importantly he really didn’t care who or how many they numbered…they would all hang.
“I want all of you to commit this conversation to memory, it may have to be recounted at a future trial, now let’s all go get a good night’s rest, tomorrow comes early for us.” Alex knew the hard part was about to start, uncovering all of the traitors would be no easy task. Alex walked out of the room to greet Sandi and kissed her, and put his arms around her and said to her.
“Never let go of me, you and our future are all I live for now.”
Sandi was on an emotional pendulum that was swinging wildly back and forth, all she could do was take each minute as it came and now realized she may never have to carry out what Carney asked her to do. Tonight’s performance by Alex provided further proof to Sandi that Alex was going to prevail, and Carney’s influence over her was waning.
Torrance sat there with his hands almost in a prayer like clench before his face. Alex had trumped his every move…the key military installations were in Alex’s camp. He had superior ground, air, and satellite capabilities. And with Admiral Hanover aligned with Hanken, he now owned the Pacific. Howard Carney stepped into his office.
“Admiral