Jo-el

Chapter 31 THE CALM BEFORE THE STORM

For almost half an hour I just sat on my sofa running through the meeting in my mind. I had set the wheels in motion and now I had to control the outcome. Steer the process in the direction I wanted it to go. I believed the only way the world was going to buy into the notion of Armageddon and a real solution was if they truly believed everything I told them. Therefore, I had to prove out my statements, which was what I was doing. They were scared but that was to be expected. I was scared when Ka-el, then Sally told me who they were and why they had contacted me. I thought about the reaction from the General and it made so much sense. He didn’t know about the galactic storm; all he saw was someone with technology vastly superior to their own and that was a threat and the way you deal with threats is you eliminate them. I just hoped he would come around and recognize that I was on their side.

I worried that I’d told them too much. Anti-gravity, travelling at the speed of light, my ability to terminate anyone, anywhere. I tried to imagine what I would feel like in their shoes. But it was hard, I knew the reasons, I’d had more time to digest the craziness. I think I would be terrified; I think I wouldn’t believe I was being told the truth, that there had to be some other reason and whatever that was, it wouldn’t be good.

These things circled around in my mind as I sat quietly on my sofa. Eventually I concluded that over worrying about everyone’s concerns wouldn’t help. There would be those who believed and those who didn’t and I simply had to do everything in my power to convince as many people as possible.

The pangs of hunger rumbled my stomach. It was almost two o’clock so I went out to the Pear Blossom café and devoured a Philly Cheesesteak sandwich. I hadn’t spoken with Sally since returning but it was time. Back in my family room I called her to join me.

She appeared as usual and sat in the armchair. Relaxed and vibrant, no signs of concern on her lovely face, no stress, no doubts of making the wrong decisions. I felt envious.

“Any messages?”

“None.”

“What else is happening?”

“Your girlfriend is still at the hospital calling relatives.”

“How they doing?”

“The men are all fine, or will be in a few days. They don’t understand how they happen to be in Virginia, but they’re happy to be there. Pippa isn’t telling them anything. The Dutch girl is in a comma, probably happened before you got her out. She’ll be okay in time. Mental scares might last but physically she’ll recover. Her parents are already booked on a flight tomorrow morning their time. Relatives of the men will be in Virginia tomorrow. The press in Holland are just getting wind of the rescue but they don’t know who to contact. It’s late over there.”

“What did Pippa tell the phycologist?”

“She lied, said it was an American Delta Force rescue. The hostages were flown to the Oceana Naval Air Station in Virginia Beach.”

“Close enough,” I said.

“Not close at all, Joey,” she laughed.

“Send a text to Pippa, I’ll take her back to Langley.”

“Now why would you do that? Let me think. Nah! Couldn’t be, could it?” Sally was grinning. “You hoping to bump uglies with the Indian Princess?”

“I just want to talk to her.”

“Yea right!”

I wasn’t going to get lead in to that discussion. “What else is happening?” I asked, trying to be serious.

Sally was still grinning, could a female image created by a computer be jealous? Who knows?

“Alberton and Grayson are working on a report for the CIA Director.”

“Grayson?”

“The black guy.”

“Oh, right.”

“Georgina Lambert is about to go into a meeting with the FBI Director. She has summoned a bunch of agents for a big powwow first thing tomorrow. I don’t think you’ll hear from her today. The Homeland Security team have begun investigating the Azziz group and have instructed their Phoenix and LA staff to obtain warrants to search the other two terrorist groups. That will probably not happen for a while.”

“What about the General?”

“Ah, he’s pissed. He still wants you dead. He’s meeting with another General as we speak and has requested a meeting with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. But he has a bit of a gung-ho reputation so no luck on setting up that meeting as yet.”

“Better keep an eye on him,” I said. “What’s the Colonel and Major up to?”

“Guess?”

“Writing a report.”

“You’re good, Joey, you hardly need me,” she laughed and I enjoyed the levity.

“No movement from the bad guys?”

“Nope, I’ll let you know if any of them stir. Your daughter called and left you a message.”

“Dang!” I started to get up to fetch my cell-phone.

“You don’t need your phone; I can tell you what she said.”

“You can get my messages?”

“Duh!”

I stared at Sally for a minute and then fell back on to the sofa. “Well?”

“Do you want it verbatim?”

“Whatever.”

“She wants to have dinner with you tomorrow and bring Adam.”

“Here?”

“She didn’t say.”

“Can you text her, you know, as if it was coming from me?”

“Jo-el, do you really have to ask?”

“No, I guess not. Tell her ‘love to see you and Adam tomorrow, how about six-thirty?”

“Done.”

Be fun to see what they thought of the man with wings, I thought.

“There’s some other news.” I glanced over, Sally was grinning.

“Okay, what?”

“Seems that one of those security guards at the CIA building told a friend, who told a friend, who tweeted that you have a computer around your waist.”

I waited for the inevitable repercussions.

“Two million Tweets and counting. You name it, it’s been said. I think mad scientist is now odds on favorite.”

“Beats, Alien, I guess.”

“Not sure the Cirion people would agree?”

I laughed.

“Also, more than eighty thousand women have asked you to marry them. Many added links to photos, which didn’t leave a lot to the imagination.”

“Thank God I don’t have a Twitter account.”

“Talking of Twitter accounts, more than three hundred have been set up purporting to be you.”

“Oh my God. What’s the Twitter people doing about it?”

“They’re trying to vet each one. Ton of work. There was an official post from Twitter that asked you to contact them so they could verify who you are and set up an account.”

“No way, I’d never leave the keyboard.”

“I could do it for you.”

I thought about that for a minute, maybe that wasn’t such a crazy idea. Give me a window straight to the people.

“Let me think about that, Sally.”

“Same with Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, etcetera.”

Social Media, absolutely incredible but I didn’t think it was good idea at that time. “No, not now.” I said.

“There was one thread you might want to think about? A billionaire, Anton Chemerov, Russian oligarch, has posted that he would pay you ten million dollars to have dinner with him.”

“That’s crazy.”

“Well it gets crazier. It sparked off a bidding war and we’re now up to forty million.”

My mouth dropped open and dried up. Forty million dollars to have dinner with me. As it sunk in I became more flabbergasted, these rich people have more money than sense. But then I considered the potential upside of winning my confidence. All the public knew so far was I had wings, if those wings were controlled by a computer you wore around your waist and that could be replicated, the business potential was astronomical. “Who’s the last bidder?” I asked.

“Malcom Reese, US business man, aerospace.”

“Unbelievable! I guess I’ll have to charge Maggie tomorrow night? Anything else going on?”

“There’s lots of media comment. Several commentators are asking why you didn’t save those refugees who drowned in the Mediterranean last night, when their boat capsized. Twelve children were among the dead.”

“Oh, shit! I didn’t know. What am I supposed to do? I can’t be everywhere.” I studied Sally for an answer, but her expression said nothing, she wasn’t fazed. Death was an everyday occurrence; she’d witnessed it for eternity. More than one hundred and fifty thousand people a day. I couldn’t get sucked into rescuing every poor individual whose life was threatened, I had to focus on the big picture, giant cliché but the truth. That put a damper on my mood. I decided to take a walk.

“What did Pippa say?”

“She’ll text when she’s ready.”

“Okay, I’m going for a walk.”

I grabbed my coat and headed for the park. The March rains were holding off but a blustery wind blew from the ocean. Tall Palm trees swayed heavily back and forth, I pulled my collar close. As I walked I considered the future.

I’d set many wheels in motion now. Eventually the public would discover my talent for travel around the world. How would that play on the talk shows? Taking heads would be spinning. How would the leaders of China or Russia view the situation? I worried about that. I needed all the world to accept me, not just America. Maybe I should distance myself from America? Maybe I should go to China and talk to the leaders there? I struggled with how to accomplish that. I knew little of their culture and nothing of their leaders. Perhaps they’ll invite me to come when they discover my technology, that might be the way to go. What about my skill for killing people, anywhere, anytime? I could only imagine the fear that would induce. Maybe I should try and keep that topic from getting out any further? Trouble was, I had no idea how to stop it.

All these things and more raced around my head and I concluded that I truly couldn’t control world opinion and as this thing grew my ability to influence would probably diminish, which made me consider Twitter. At least that would allow me a voice. It was an idea and I was warming to it.