this to the press, he’d be laughed out of office.”
“That’s what the report was for, Sir. All the data is in there, it’s incontrovertible.”
“That’s what you say. I must have had five meetings this morning with different lobbyists, and they all have incontrovertible proof of one thing or another, most of it contradictory. There’s a lot of play here. We’ll task this out to some national lab people, they’ll try and confirm, but I think that it is way too premature for any of this to be released to the public. We don’t even have a solution for any of this. We need a game plan.”
“But you can’t just wait on this. There isn’t any time left. Every minute we delay is going to hurt our chances of surviving.”
The President said, “You just don’t understand all the political ramification of this thing, Mr. Johnston. I can understand how you feel the way you do from your perspective. But remember, your job is to find way-out threats and bring them to our attention. But there are a lot more parts to the puzzle. We’ve got to worry about the employment figures, foreign relations, the environment– a bunch of other things. We can’t just go off half-cocked on something like this. We’ve got to spin it right. We’ve got to give the American people a ‘warm fuzzy feeling’ about it. Otherwise there’ll be panic in the streets, and we wouldn’t want that now, would we? We’ll take your report under consideration, and we’ll monitor the problem very closely. I’ll put one of my top aides on it. You just go back and try and uncover some more info on this. Good work, son.” He presented Ray with a thumbs-up.
The President was interrupted by one of his aides, “Sorry to interrupt, Sir, but you’ve got four more briefings to get through before lunch.”
“Yes, good, send in the next briefer,” the President said to his aide. Then he turned to Ray, “Great briefing Mr. Johnston. Great briefing. Keep up the good work.” General Dumphries smiled and began to guide Ray out of the chamber. The President continued, “...and Mr. Johnston, remember to pick up one of my signed photos as a souvenir. Ask the secretary. Great briefing.”
The last image that Ray had of the room was of a new briefer beginning to show slides about Russian Air Defense units. The President was already deeply engrossed in the new brief. He wouldn’t do anything about this. He wouldn’t even remember it ten minutes from now. “Ray, I thought that went great. I’m always proud of my boys when they can get some face time. This presentation will be a great addition to our yearly highlights report.”
“Well, what the hell do we do now?” Ray said to the General, ignoring the empty congratulatory statement.
“You heard the commander. We go back and look for more evidence. We take it slow.”
“But there isn’t any time. We’ve got to take action now. Before it’s too late. Hell, it may already be too late.”
General Dumphries picked up his beeper from the tray on the secretary’s desk. No electronics were allowed in the Situation Room. As he stretched to clip it back to his belt his shirt strained to remain tucked. “Calm down Ray. You’ve done your job. Remember, we don’t make policy. We were hired to inform the policymakers of the facts. What they chose to do with those facts is up to them. All we can do is be good soldiers, that’s all.”
“But they’re not going to do anything. They are going to take that report, classify it so deep that no one will ever be able to read it, and they’ll do nothing. Then it will certainly be too late.” Ray was clearly getting hot under the collar.
“Don’t worry, I’ve already written a commendation for your work. It is documented how you were the first person to pick this up. When the story finally breaks everyone will remember that you were the one who was right. It’ll all be in your personnel record.”
“Damn it! Is that all you people think about?
“That’s what the report was for, Sir. All the data is in there, it’s incontrovertible.”
“That’s what you say. I must have had five meetings this morning with different lobbyists, and they all have incontrovertible proof of one thing or another, most of it contradictory. There’s a lot of play here. We’ll task this out to some national lab people, they’ll try and confirm, but I think that it is way too premature for any of this to be released to the public. We don’t even have a solution for any of this. We need a game plan.”
“But you can’t just wait on this. There isn’t any time left. Every minute we delay is going to hurt our chances of surviving.”
The President said, “You just don’t understand all the political ramification of this thing, Mr. Johnston. I can understand how you feel the way you do from your perspective. But remember, your job is to find way-out threats and bring them to our attention. But there are a lot more parts to the puzzle. We’ve got to worry about the employment figures, foreign relations, the environment– a bunch of other things. We can’t just go off half-cocked on something like this. We’ve got to spin it right. We’ve got to give the American people a ‘warm fuzzy feeling’ about it. Otherwise there’ll be panic in the streets, and we wouldn’t want that now, would we? We’ll take your report under consideration, and we’ll monitor the problem very closely. I’ll put one of my top aides on it. You just go back and try and uncover some more info on this. Good work, son.” He presented Ray with a thumbs-up.
The President was interrupted by one of his aides, “Sorry to interrupt, Sir, but you’ve got four more briefings to get through before lunch.”
“Yes, good, send in the next briefer,” the President said to his aide. Then he turned to Ray, “Great briefing Mr. Johnston. Great briefing. Keep up the good work.” General Dumphries smiled and began to guide Ray out of the chamber. The President continued, “...and Mr. Johnston, remember to pick up one of my signed photos as a souvenir. Ask the secretary. Great briefing.”
The last image that Ray had of the room was of a new briefer beginning to show slides about Russian Air Defense units. The President was already deeply engrossed in the new brief. He wouldn’t do anything about this. He wouldn’t even remember it ten minutes from now. “Ray, I thought that went great. I’m always proud of my boys when they can get some face time. This presentation will be a great addition to our yearly highlights report.”
“Well, what the hell do we do now?” Ray said to the General, ignoring the empty congratulatory statement.
“You heard the commander. We go back and look for more evidence. We take it slow.”
“But there isn’t any time. We’ve got to take action now. Before it’s too late. Hell, it may already be too late.”
General Dumphries picked up his beeper from the tray on the secretary’s desk. No electronics were allowed in the Situation Room. As he stretched to clip it back to his belt his shirt strained to remain tucked. “Calm down Ray. You’ve done your job. Remember, we don’t make policy. We were hired to inform the policymakers of the facts. What they chose to do with those facts is up to them. All we can do is be good soldiers, that’s all.”
“But they’re not going to do anything. They are going to take that report, classify it so deep that no one will ever be able to read it, and they’ll do nothing. Then it will certainly be too late.” Ray was clearly getting hot under the collar.
“Don’t worry, I’ve already written a commendation for your work. It is documented how you were the first person to pick this up. When the story finally breaks everyone will remember that you were the one who was right. It’ll all be in your personnel record.”
“Damn it! Is that all you people think about?
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