Reprisal!- The Eagle's Sorrow Read online

  “If you remember, there was some digging done by the media into the irregularity of the filings with the Federal Election Commission, only to have a judge friendly to Starks order a halt to the investigation. That order precluded even the election committee from looking into the matter. Weren’t you one of the main critics of the Democrats for not holding hearings on that issue? If I recall correctly, they stonewalled you and the rest of the Republicans, refusing to look at anything.” Steven reminded her of her own feelings and the event that first pushed her into the national spotlight.

  She nodded. “There’s something wrong there, otherwise why would he hide the records? They are trying to cover up something. I can feel it,” the senator stated flatly.

  “Exactly!” Steven nearly shouted. “We felt the same way you do, and now we have the proof that something is wrong. There are still more warning signs that suggest that there are even more problems in this administration. From his campaign, to the cozy relationship he has with radicals, to the way he is stonewalling any attempt to protect this country from attack by our enemies. Those enemies start with Mexico who wants to retake the Southwest by flooding it with illegal immigrants and then claim squatter’s rights. The Russians, Chinese and French are trying to steal every industrial secret they can find; and the radical Islamists want to kill us all because we don’t share their twisted religious beliefs. Do we really want to lose our country to someone who is more self-absorbed than Paris Hilton?” Steven asked sarcastically as he continued to work on building his case to the senator before he sprung the real reason she was there.

  “It doesn’t take a genius to see that Starks and his team used every advertising trick in the book to convince the public that they had to vote for him. He played them like a fiddle. Now, I know…” Steven raised his hand to quell her comments for the moment as he finished, “…that is just good politics,” Steven quipped sarcastically. “Except that it’s really bad for the country. That man has no substance, no morals or convictions. He stands for nothing, other than looking good on camera and playing at being the president.

  “Don’t try to tell me that you haven’t seen it. And please don’t tell me you don’t want to change this situation as quickly as possible. I know you do. I can see it in your eyes whenever you talk about the problems we face,” Steven challenged the senator.

  “Yes, but there isn’t anything we can do about it for the next three and half years. He won and that’s that,” the senator interjected, unable to remain silent.

  “Wrong! I thought we covered that?” Steven shouted angrily. “In regard to his domestic policies and bills, you need to lead the charge to filibuster every last thing the Democrats propose. And I’m sorry, Senator, you’re wrong about not doing something in regard to the other issues, too. If something illegal has transpired, it’s your duty as an American citizen and a senator to do everything in your power to expose it. You must expose the wrongdoing. The oath of office you took states that you will protect this country from enemies, both foreign and domestic!” Steven was standing now and glowering at her.

  “So…what? You want me to start an investigation of the president? That’s against the law!” the senator stated emphatically.

  “Ah, that’s not exactly true,” Bill Richland interjected in a quiet, calm voice.

  “What?” the senator replied.

  “We can investigate any president. Well, at least the FBI can, or a senator can request that they do it. No one is above the law. The Supreme Court set precedent in the early eighteen hundreds. Zackary Taylor was investigated by the U.S. Marshall at the insistence of a senator—I think it might have been Henry Clay—for allegedly taking bribes in return for government contracts going to his supporters. He was cleared, but the investigation took place,” Bill explained.

  “Like that will happen with Starks’ friend in charge over there. Anthony Tenants is a Starks crony from way back. He’ll never agree to it,” the senator lamented.

  “Didn’t Taylor shoot the senator for having him investigated?’ Bob asked.

  “No, that was Jefferson’s vice-president, Aaron Burr, who shot Alexander Hamilton for making comments which he didn’t like in a newspaper report about his wife, Dolly Madison. He did it on the White House lawn,” Chip interjected.

  “Starks’ cronies won’t do anything, which is exactly why we have to,” Steven stated emphatically.

  “What? There you go again saying ‘we.’ Just who is ‘we’? I already made my feelings clear about breaking any laws over some political games-playing. We’ll just have to do a better job next election,” the senator stated flatly.

  “That’s thinking like a politician and not a patriot,” Chip blurted out. “What if there is no next election?” Chip inquired next. “What if a crisis arises that precludes elections due to the danger to the public, leaving it wide open for Starks and his cronies to declare martial law? It’ll be too late then. The man and his friends will have stolen the power from the people for themselves, and you will have allowed it to happen.” Chip unceremoniously dumped the whole issue in her lap.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  “Your position as a senator will be abolished and America along with it. The man and his friends are dirty. We all know it. Hell, we have proof of it! Yet you would have us do nothing? What I hear you saying, Senator, is don’t rock the boat. Go along to get along. Is that right?” Chip snarled as he pushed the senator’s buttons.

  “Don’t put words in my mouth! If you feel so strongly about this issue, than why did you retire?” she shot back, trying to put Chip on the defensive. It failed.

  “I retired so that I could use my skills and experience to help my country. So I could fight terrorism wherever I found it. Starks flat out refuses to do anything about the attacks. I retired and moved to another country, so I could go after whomever is responsible and do whatever I have to do to eliminate the threat,” Chip snapped.

  “Now, Bill and Bob here, they were let go by Starks, and he appointed his do-nothing friends with the support of his cronies in Congress, who have been receiving large campaign contributions from Starks’ campaign war chest.”

  Chip was interrupted by the senator as he paused to breathe. “There’s no law against doing that!” she stated loudly and defensively.

  “No, there’s no law against that, but there is against him receiving the millions of dollars from foreign powers that he’s been throwing around. He’s not reporting any new campaign contributions and the money he has claimed has been spent a dozen times over. Have you received any of it? No, because you’re not a Democrat or a rhino Republican,” Chip stated sharply.

  “We will never get Starks to admit where the money is coming from, but then, we don’t have to. We’ve got the proof—we know its illegal contributions from foreign sources. The cover story that Starks’ chief of staff, Jason Combs, is proffering is that the money has come from individual donations from people who attend the president’s speeches,” Chip concluded.

  The senator cut Chip off, interjecting, “I’ve had that happen myself, so that’s not unbelievable.”

  “When I heard what Steven and Chip were doing,” Bill stated, “I jumped at the chance to make a real difference. I know the law, and I know how to do the investigation on the QT, but we need allies to run interference and to push at different sore spots so that we can work,” Bill stated plainly.

  “My international contacts have told me we have a problem. Several have shared with me that their informants have confirmed that Starks has taken bribes from a group in the Middle East. That explains why Starks would hire Solution Brothers Trust, a pro-Muslin PR firm, to help with his campaign fundraising efforts. They have very deep pockets, and they represent over two dozen supposed Muslim charities, three Muslim countries, and Starks’ reelection campaign. Half of the Muslim charities that Solution Brothers Trust represents have known ties to Hamas and Hezbollah. Their chief operating officer has been taped giving speeches openly supporting efforts to
Muslimize America.

  “We have unconfirmed reports of a high-ranking individual from a foreign government located in the Middle East having bragged about how he was part of a group which bought the election and how they now control our foreign policy.

  “Unfortunately, he was killed before we could confirm his story. We have the paper trail leading us back to the Brotherhood, though, and we have their connection to known terrorist groups. What we don’t yet have is the smoking gun regarding who is actually supplying the money, but we have witnesses and a paper trail. They all point to the Brotherhood as the group funneling the money to Starks, and in return, he’s letting them call the shots in our war on terrorism. Terrorists, through Starks, are in charge of our efforts to stop terrorism.” Bill paused, letting his words sink in.

  “We have Ashrawl’s confession to back up those informants and the paper trail leading right to Starks’ door. If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, looks like a duck, it’s a duck!” Bill sarcastically announced.

  “As we sit here, my team is gathering intelligence and adding it to what we know so far. They are collating it into a coherent package that the public can understand. We need someone the public will recognize to present it—someone the public trusts,” Bob stated, inferring that the senator was that person.

  “I can’t be part of this! What if Starks finds out? The hearings will destroy my career!” the senator objected.

  “Senator, you’re up for reelection next year, and there is already a guy running against you. He’s one of Starks’ cronies, isn’t he?” Steven asked and the senator nodded. “Starks is feeding him money hand over fist according to the finance reports he has filed. How long do you think you’ll be able to run against him and Starks’ unlimited money? They are going to steamroll you, just like Starks did to Graham. He’ll simply spend you out of office.”

  “I’m no pushover. I’ve got an approval rating of over seventy percent,” the senator asserted.

  “Yes, and how long will that approval rating last when they start saying you’re wrong for the country, wrong for Georgia, just plain wrong? You saw those ads last year. They were never specific as to why Graham was wrong for the presidency, just that he was. That ad ran twenty-fours a day, seven days a week for the last two months of the campaign. Can you beat that? I doubt it.

  “The only way you’ll beat that kind of advertising is by having more money, or if the guy running the ads is clearly shown to be a lowlife by associating him with a president who is continually hounded by scandals or is being impeached,” Steven added.

  “To top it all off, you’ve got Starks trying to pin a scandal on you every other day of the week. If you don’t stand up and fight back twice as hard as he is, you lose. You can’t wait to do it next year or next month. He’s not trying to beat you with better ideas; he’s trying to destroy you personally with anything he can, whether it’s true or not. Then on top of that, there is the martial law threat,” Steven concluded, then waited for the senator to respond.

  “How would we go about finding that kind of information? Legally, that is?” the senator asked, now fully understanding what she would face come the next election.

  “I seriously doubt that Starks is getting any of the money from anywhere in the U.S., so we’ll have to go outside of the States to find it. In that environment, I doubt anyone will care that we’re investigating Starks. We’ll use all of our contacts to follow the paper trail back to the point of origin. We’ll be able to check into every banking transaction of every company they claim has contributed to or was hired by Starks during the campaign and since. After 9/11, we found that there is always a paper trail. You just have to have the cojones to follow it to the end,” Bob stated with authority.

  “You’re telling me that you have informants in the banking industry?” the senator asked as she looked from man to man.

  “Senator, I was the director of the CIA. The CIA has informants everywhere, and I still have the names and numbers of all of them,” Bob added.

  “That can’t be legal!” she exclaimed.

  “What’s not legal about calling old co-workers and friends?” Bob asked as he grinned wolfishly.

  “Sarah, I know hundreds of people in finance,” Steven said, “who can’t wait to gossip about everything. They provide me with lots of inside information about competitors, the Fed, the SEC, FCC, and FDIC. You name the company, and I can get inside info within a few hours that will knock your socks off. Some of my competitors would have these people killed if they knew they were such blabbermouths. I only share what is public knowledge about my company. That way I don’t have to worry about what these people pass on. The information is out there. All we have to do is collect it,” Steven explained.

  “We want you on our team. You’ll run the political end. Just keep doing your best to bring the administration to account for their behavior. Don’t let them just run over everyone. In exchange for being part of the team, I’ll make sure you have the cash necessary to protect your seat and help other deserving members of the House and Senate retain their seats, as well.” Steven sweetened the pot.

  “I don’t want to lose my seat. I still feel I have a great deal to give to this country. General, you are the most black and white thinker I’ve ever known, even more than young Steven here. Why are you involved in this?” the senator asked.

  “I thought I already told you, Senator. But I’ll admit, I’ve asked myself that question a hundred times since I retired. I was angry at the administration’s reaction to the terror attacks in Houston and San Antonio. My daughter-in-law and my grandchildren were killed in San Antonio by those pieces of camel shit. My government did nothing about it and is still doing nothing.”

  Despite being startled by the colorful language, Senator Bains interrupted the general and offered her condolences, which he thanked her for and then continued, “Starks called it a common crime and then stopped the FBI from investigating it to the fullest.

  “At first, I thought I had retired and joined Steven just because my emotions had gotten the better of me. Then I realized, if I didn’t do something, who would?”

  Chip waited a moment for the point to sink in before he continued. “Sure, it’s a lot safer to sit on the sidelines and point the finger of blame at someone else, but that won’t change the situation. The people who have sold out our great nation will continue to sell it out. More families will have to deal with the grief and sorrow that my son and I have had to deal with.”

  Chip hesitated for another brief moment, took a deep breath corralling his emotions, and continued, “Each time there is an attack against us and we do nothing, a part of our country dies. Freedom is never free; and freedom is the one thing that most people in this world want the most. It is also the only thing that can stop the systematic slavery that is being forced upon the majority of the world’s population by the dictators who are so adamantly against us.

  “The politicians, present company excluded, have stopped protecting this country, and they are doing their utmost to curtail our freedoms. Something has to be done to stop them. I think it’s in the Constitution where it says, and I’m paraphrasing of course, ‘All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing!’ I believe this to be true, and so here I am, to do whatever I have to do, to save my country from those who would sell it for thirty pieces of silver,” Chip concluded and then sat blinking tears away, finally using his napkin to wipe them away.

  “General, I never thought I’d say this, but you are one hell of a speech maker. I also happen to agree with you, and I know you’re right. It’s just…I’ve so much to lose.” The senator stopped for a moment, giving Chip an opening to interject.

  “And Steven doesn’t have a lot to lose? What about Bill and Bob? I’m the only one with hardly anything left to lose, but that doesn’t mean we should wait until we all have nothing left to lose. What if Jefferson, Washington and Franklin had said we’ve too much to lose so we can’t rock the bo
at?” Chip questioned but didn’t wait for an answer before continuing.