Get Into James Shorts - 25. Twilight’s Last Gleaming

Twilight’s Last Gleaming

“And who are you supposed to be?"

"I'm Gorman from Global Analysis" He handed the officious man an identity card.

The bureaucrat read the card as if it might say 'enemy agent, detain on sight', and then returned the credentials.

"Please come in Mr. Gorman. The committee is waiting. Are you an analyst for GA?"

Gorman took off his gloves revealing a dagger tattoo on one hand an ace of diamonds on the other. He said, "No sir. I'm the owner." He cocked his head in the direction of the door indicating to the bureaucrat to lead him inside.

He got the message and said, "Please follow me Mr. Gorman."

The bureaucrat led Gorman from the service entrance in the underground parking garage into the labyrinth of corridors. As they walked he said, "Sorry about the cloak and dagger entry but the people upstairs don't want me seen here any more than I do, and people are watching."

The bureaucrat approached a freight elevator, pushed the call button and said, "I understand sir. Intelligence matters are always like this. We're not here, and I don't recall any meetings with Global Analysis."

Gorman snorted as he entered the elevator and said, "If anyone actually did recall half the shit that goes on in DC, they would hang us all."

The bureaucrat pushed the button and said, "It'll never happen because most of the condemned would be politicians with only the purest intentions."

The elevator arrived quickly at the twelfth floor. Gorman exited and said, "I know the way from here. Remember the destination that road lined with good intentions leads."

Gorman entered the conference room and was actually impressed with the array of people who were waiting. The President's Chief of Staff, the Deputy Director of Operations for the CIA, the Attorney General's hatchet-man and all the members of the Senate Intelligence Committee that matter,

The President’s Chief of Staff, Blain Ritter, said, “Mr. Gorman, thank you for joining us tonight. We have a number of fires to put out and your special skills may be very helpful.”

Gorman sat down at an empty spot at the table. He said, “I don’t know how much we can do. We are a small private intelligence company. What I see going on in the news may be bigger than all of us.”

The bloated Senator Hollingsworth from Louisiana said, “On the contrary Mr. Gorman. As SoCom’s best fixer, your special skills are precisely what we need.”

Addler, the AG’s hatchet man said, “We believe that given the state of emergency that we are legally empowered to take significant action to restore the peace.”

Gorman shook his head and said, “Let me see if I can put this in perspective. In our election three years ago, we elected a president that no one wanted who continued flawed economic and spending policies that ran the debt up to twenty-five trillion dollars. The weight of all that debt literally broke the banks which collapsed triggering the economic crisis that continues to spiral out of control. During that election radical groups were formed to cause chaos and fear around the elections, but now they are off the chain. In response to those radicals, militias have been popping up in response to the riots and violence. Does that about cover it?”

Hollingsworth, who Gorman could only think of as Foghorn, replied, “I think you have it covered Mr. Gorman. We think that if we pull off a few key targeted assassinations of the Republic of New Africa leadership and a few militia goons, we’ll blunt their momentum and give the police and National Guard a chance to gain the upper hand in some big city war zones and out west and down South with the militias.”

Addler said, “We have a list. There are twelve. Once they’re gone, their movements will collapse then we can restore order.”

“My people— they’re off the hook. Forever?”

Addler pulled out a file from his briefcase and handed it to Gorman.

Gorman opened it and looked at the documents. A dozen Presidential pardons were there with his team member’s names, and one of his own. All the members of his team were too young. All of them had lost a father in one of the damned fool wars or covert actions of the last twenty years. They were the only family Gorman had, and he would be damned if he would throw away their lives to pull some corrupt politicians asses out of the fire that they had been playing with.

Gorman said, “You know how we work. It’ll take some time to set it all up.”

Senator Hollingsworth said, “We don’t need it to be deniable. Assassinations among groups like this are common. In fact, we encourage you to make it look like an assassination to encourage internal power struggles.”

Addler said, “We know it’s not your style but, we require these people dead in the next couple of weeks. We can furnish detailed dossiers on all of them.”

Gorman said, “How soon do I have to decide?”

Ritter said, “We would like your commitment tonight or tomorrow morning latest. This has got to happen soon.”

Gorman stood and said, “I need to sleep on it and think about deploying our assets.”

Ritter said, “Thank you, Mr. Gorman.”

He collected the files on the table and left the room. He left the building the same way he entered and entered the passenger side of a nondescript Chevy Taiho SUV.

The driver said, “Where too boss?”

Gorman said, “The airport. Have all of our people bugged out to Colorado?”

His driver said, “I just got a text from Schubert. Almost everyone is there, and the rest are in route.”

Gorman asked, “Did you get it?”

“5 X 5 boss. It’s all digitized into a standard audio-video file with all the necessary authentication, and it's ready for transmission.”

“Good. Let’s get the hell out of here before the shit hits the fan.”

At two am that same night over the Tennessee-Kentucky border, the remainder of Global Dynamics staff was aboard the company Gulfstream IV jet. They would soon be at the campus in Colorado.

It took Gorman some time to set up the email. There were over one hundred email addresses of various members of the media. With the click of an icon the entire record of the meeting where the President’s Chief of Staff, a representative of the Attorney General’s Office and the Senate Intelligence Committee had solicited the assassination of a number of leaders of dissident groups.

Morgan sat down beside Gorman and handed him a glass of scotch and water.

He asked, “Did we do the right thing boss.”

“We could have punched every ticket on their list, and it wouldn’t have changed a damn thing. You can bet your ass this will. The politicians are about to have to explain their conduct to the American people. Once that starts, a number of the things that they tell congress I don’t recall are going to come out. This isn’t going to bring down just the President and a few senators. This is one of those times that Jefferson spoke of: the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”