[Monday 9PM – Los Angeles, CA]
Lynne stood on the stage in a grand ballroom in Los Angeles, looking out over a crowd of young factory workers, accountants, engineers, office staff and their significant others.
“I’d like to welcome all of you from Ishi Heavy Industries into the TanLyn Syndicate Family of Companies. Your fantastic trucks, bulldozers, earth movers, and mining equipment are a wonder to behold. Your dedication to first rate craftsmanship and excellence are exactly the qualities that the TanLyn Syndicate needs. But despite your excellent work, there are things that could be done better. There are external pressures that detract from the results of your hard work and degrade the level that the products could reach if those pressures didn’t exist.
So over the course of the next year, Ishi Heavy Industries will be relocating production from the relatively high operating cost location here on the West Coast to a more modern and cost effective factory campus in Kentucky just across the Mississippi River from the City of TanLyn, Missouri. All who are interested are welcome to accept the generous relocation package that you will find in your company inter-office mail later this week. Thank you, and now I hand over the microphone to Mr. Ishi.”
“Thank you, Lynne. Everyone please give Lynne a hand --” Daisuke Ishi said taking the microphone and leading the applause, the thudding of his claps amplified by the microphone. He was a man of average Japanese height, standing just a smidgen shorter than Lynne without her heels. Daisuke was reputed to be fifty years of age, but as is the case with Asian men he appeared younger. He was outfitted in a crisply pressed black tuxedo, with a white bow-tie and cummerbund selected to match Lynne’s dress. He possessed the strong, stocky build common to the men of the Ryukyu Islands in southern Japan. In almost all ways he looked the stereotypical salary man. Almost. He happened to be one of the five percent of the Japanese population with blue eyes.
“-- Such a beautiful leader she will be,” he stated. “It will be much nicer seeing her beautiful face than looking at my haggard old mug, am I right?” he laughed, and the crowd laughed with him. “For those of you thinking ‘Great. No more nasty Ishi-San.’ I have some bad news… I’m not going anywhere – except Kentucky.” He grabbed a baby’s breath from a nearby vase and put it in his mouth as if it were a stalk of grass. “How’d I look y’all,” he said affecting a fake country drawl to the laughs of the crowd.
He spat out the flower. “Seriously now. This merger is a great thing for Ishi Heavy. Miss Lynne’s purchase of this company removes some onerous conditions placed on us by investors in Japan some ten years ago when we were a much smaller company operating only in Northern Japan. Most of you here are employees from when we originally started the operations in the US, and can probably remember some of the really silly things that the folks from Japan asked us to do. Anyone remember ‘Yukata Day’ when we were asked to come to work wearing yukata once a week? Those folks are no longer a concern.
Anyways, as they say in Kentucky, ‘Get on widdit!’ I’m not going to waste any more of your time on boring speeches. This ballroom is ours for the duration of the night. As a special treat later this evening, we’ve been given a parting gift from our Japanese investors who have managed to secure popular acts for your entertainment tonight. For now though, enjoy the buffet and open bar. I’ll speak to you again in about two hours.”
Daisuke hopped down from the stage and stumbled. Lynne caught him before he fell. “Thank you,” he said.
“No problem,” she responded. “I seem a tad overdressed,” she said looking around at the crowd dressed in normal office attire, button up shirts, a few suits and casual dresses.
“I apologize for that. It was a parting shot by my ex-wife’s family to embarrass me,” he said. “It seems only you and I got invitations stating ‘formal’ attire while the rest of the employees got invitations stating ‘business casual.’”
Lynne laughed. “A little petty, are they?”
“A lot petty,” Daisuke corrected. “For most of the last ten years they’ve done their best to embarrass me. They always fail. They don’t seem to understand that some people can’t be embarrassed in the ways that they themselves can. Classic case of projection. Would you like a drink?” he asked.
“Champagne would be wonderful,” Lynne responded.
“I’ll be right back,” he replied heading off toward the bar. “Or not,” he shouted once he saw the length of the line.
“Any luck?” asked Tonya from behind Lynne, startling her.
“I told you so,” Lynne scoffed, “he’s been a perfect gentleman.”
“The night is yet young, and the tongues are still dry,” snickered Tonya, then she lowered her voice and spoke into Lynne’s ear. “Just FYI, I got a call from William. Their satellites are all over the place with interference and anomalous readings on the atmosphere, magnetic and electric fields, and general ionization.”
“Foreign action against the satellites fouling the sensors? EMP or something?” Lynne asked.
“They’re investigating. No one wants to jump to that conclusion. At this point, the working theory is that there is some sort of increase in the solar background radiation that is adversely affecting the satellites. If it keeps up, they’re going to recommend that domestic satellite operators take solar event precautions. That means that communications may be impaired, if you get my drift.”
“Understood. Out of an abundance of caution, order our birds into safe mode until William says otherwise,” Lynne ordered.
“Got it,” Tonya said walking away. After a couple of steps she turned back to Lynne and winked.
Daisuke returned just as Tonya left. He handed Lynne a flute of champagne. “Everything OK?” he asked after seeing Tonya’s wink.
“Yes. Just some end-of-year maintenance issues to cover,” she answered taking a drink.
“I’ve never winked when talking about business,” Daisuke stated.
“You’ll come to realize soon enough that Tonya does things a bit differently sometimes,” Lynne deflected taking a sip of her champagne.
The two of them stood silently for a bit watching the employees mull around. It became obvious after a while that the chamber band’s music selection wasn’t providing the necessary genres to keep the employees entertained. Many had already reached the ‘polite’ number of trips to the buffet or one too many trips to the open bar. The had started to become agitated.
Lynne caught Tonya motioning to her from a far corner. Get moving. DO SOMETHING! Her movements said.
Lynne shrugged back at her, misinterpreting her motions to mean to do something about the employee boredom.
Tonya rolled her eyes. She gruffly placed her glass of whiskey on a table and struck a pose that left no doubt about what she had meant for Lynne to do.
Lynne pointed at Tonya, chiding her about her suggestion.
The band struck up a swing era tune.
“Care to dance?” Daisuke asked holding out his hand.
“Do you know the steps?” she asked amazed.
“Let us see. Coming?” he cupped his hand in invitation.
She put her glass on the table and took his hand. He immediately pulled her into the steps for the dance matching the music.
Lynne was blown away. The last time she had danced this way was in the 1930s just before the speakeasy was closed down. Daisuke’s movements were flawless, and the two of them quickly became the focus of attention.
Seeing the response to the song, the band leader lead the group into another swing piece without breaking.
Daisuke didn’t miss a step, transitioning immediately into the next dance. Lynne followed effortlessly.
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He spun her out and while she was at arm’s length drank the rest himself and put the glass on the table before reeling her back in.
The crowd applauded.
Lynne was now dancing with her back against Daisuke. “Have you considered my proposition?” he whispered in her ear before entering a spin.
“I don’t know,” she answered upon returning, “you’ve made several propositions.”
“About being my partner,” was all he could say before the dance sent her back to arms length.
“We are partners,” she answered coming back.
He nibbled her ear. “In bed.” Again he spun her away.
“What about your wife?” she inquired, now that the dance allowed them a few moments of closeness.
“No longer. I’m all yours,” he said.
The song ended and he dipped her.
“I’m very greedy,” she said from her position.
“I think I can pay your price.” He smiled, then pulled her up and kissed her in front of everyone.
Oohs, aahs, and whoops radiated from the crowd along with applause.
Daisuke caught a signal from the side door. “Hold that thought, love. I’ll be right back for your answer.” He trotted over to the door.
Lynne’s head was spinning and her heart was pounding hard in her chest. She sat on the nearest chair, panting.
“Well now, kiddos,” Daisuke said from the stage. “It seems that the entertainment planned for later is ready early.”
An accordion divider wall started retracting, exposing a large stage behind.
“I introduce some people that I likely don’t need to introduce to most of you. Did that just make any sense?” he asked. “For those who are not hip, I present The KoRT: Knights of the Round Table!”
The crowd went nuts and rushed to the front of the newly exposed stage.
Daisuke turned off the mic and dismissed the chamber band.
“Well, now. That’s over,” he said, returning to Lynne. “It’s not my kind of music. It’s too loud and hard to dance to. Would you be interested in making some music of our own?”
Without a second thought, Lynne took his hand and they left the ballroom.
Tonya smiled and took another sip from her glass. A young man approached her with obvious intent, and she raised her left hand to show him her ring. He veered off and headed for the crowd at the stage.
[Monday – Omaha, Nebraska: USSTRATCOM Offutt Air Force Base]
General William Jackson walked down the hallway after clearing the checks at the security station. His blue Air Force uniform was uncharacteristically wrinkled from being crumpled into the flight suit and his short black hair was still wet from profuse sweating in the flight helmet. As he approached the door to the control room, the two soldiers saluted in turn. He saluted them in return and the soldier on William’s right opened the door for him.
“Okay, folks, what’s so important that I had to be squished into an F-18 and flown here at high speed for?” William announced as the door closed behind him. It was more of a statement about his displeasure than an actual question.
“Plug it, General. You know that the only reason you’re bitching is that someone else was piloting it, Billy,” said a white haired black man sitting at the octagonal table that was the focus of the glass walled room.
“Franklin. Or should I say Admiral Clare,” William said with a smirk.
“When are you going to call me ‘Frank’? We’ve known each other for over 25 years,” the Admiral said indicating that William should sit.
“I’ll call you by your preferred moniker when you call me by mine. You are fully aware that only my wife and departed brother call me anything other than William.”
Frank chuckled. “Yes, actually, I do. Even your mother calls you William. But you’ve always been ‘Billy’ to me. In middle school, calling someone William was just so uncool.”
Frank cleared his throat. “I believe you know everyone at the table?”
“Generals. Admiral.” William said to the three other men and single female while taking his seat. “So, why is a ‘semi-retired consulting’ General called to such a high level1 meeting on such short notice?”
The woman leaned forward and clasped her hands on the table. “William. You know that you’d still be sitting in my chair if you hadn’t so vocally disagreed with President Alabama and his advisers.”
“Alice.” William nodded. “As all here know, I don’t kiss anyone’s ass. If that idiot in the Oval Office only wants to hear his own opinions spouted back to him then someone else will have to do it. So, I’ll ask again, why am I here?”
“Because you’re the best the country has at this stuff,” stated the General to William’s left as he passed a folder to William. The man was wearing the deep blue of the Marines.
“Thanks, Geoff. How’re the kids?” William asked taking the folder. It had a big red CLASSIFIED: EYES ONLY stamp on the front.
“In college and killing me financially,” Geoff laughed.
“They’re not getting their tuition covered by the DOD?” William asked.
“Not when they do stupid things like attend college overseas. What’s wrong with staying in the good ole US of A? I ask. But nooooooo. They both head off to attend school in Europe. Are there not perfectly good art programs here?” he grumbled.
William smiled. “I hear you. Maria wanted to go off to Brazil. As if there weren’t perfectly good business schools here. Probably rebellion.”
He opened the folder and looked at the series of photographs that were inside.
“Whoa. When did this start?” He asked.
“The first one showed up about twelve hours ago. Since then, the other five appeared,” Frank said. “What’s more, there’s this.” He slid six more photos and a folded map across the table toward William.
William unfolded the map onto the table. It showed the earth spread flat. Over six regions were circles drawn with colors from red to blue projecting out from the centers. The photos contained satellite imagery of the atmospheric anomalies depicted on the map.
“You feel that these are connected?” William asked.
“That’s why you’re here,” Alice stated. “You tell us.”
“What do the President’s men say?” William asked.
“You could fit the I.Q.s of the President, his Cabinet, and ‘his men’ into a thimble with room to spare!” said General Hartford from the Army.
Everyone laughed in agreement.
“You left out the V.P.,” William joked.
“I actively try to forget that the Veep even exists. The man doesn’t have the sense that God gave a rock,” Hartford opined. “You throw a rock and it follows the Laws of Physics. The Veep would argue that he isn’t subject to any Laws and would try to prove that he was actually gaining altitude instead of falling to the ground.”
William spread out the photos from the folder on top of the map, chronologically from his left to right. They were images of the Sun taken by a Sun Observing Satellite.
“Why are these Classified? They look like SOHO images. The ESA would also have them,” William asked.
“SOHO is offline for maintenance at the moment, and will remain so until we resolve this,” Hartford said gruffly.
“These images are from the ‘other’ observatory. As far as we can tell, these aren’t yet visible to terrestrial equipment yet,” Alice followed up.
William suddenly understood. “Oh, from THAT satellite. So these images are from outside of the visible spectrum.”
She nodded.
He studied the images a bit more carefully. “Are these available digitally? I need to look at a few things.”
Frank walked to one of the glass walls and knocked, getting the attention of the people working at the stations below. He made a few gestures and then returned to his seat. “Ask and you shall receive.”
A moment later, a young uniformed woman brought in a laptop. Frank indicated that she hand it to William.
He opened the laptop and the screen sprung to life. William quickly logged in and brought up the data. “I see,” he mused.
“Some of our analysts had thought that they were pre-developed sunspots, but they actually look like they pierce through the Sun,” Frank provided while William analyzed the images.
“Holes in the Sun?” Alice asked.
“Doesn’t look like it, but give me a few more moments,” William said zooming in and panning around.
After a tense period of analysis, William looked up. “Can we have a real time feed put on the wall monitor there?” he asked.
Frank picked up a phone on the desk and made a call. “It’ll take about an hour but they can do it,” he reported.
“Good. I’ve got to take a leak anyway,” William sighed.
“Alright, folks. Let’s break for about an hour,” Frank said.
They all filed out of the room and headed down the hall toward the exit at the security desk. William stopped at the desk and requested his cell phone. The security officer handed him his phone and reminded him that anything heard or seen inside was classified.
“Thank you for the reminder, soldier. However, I’m going to make my call right here in your presence and then sign the phone right back in.”
He dialed Tonya and waited for her answer. “Hi, babe. I’m going to be here for quite a while. Tell Mother that I apologize for missing her party and that she’ll want to put the bird on ice until another time. Yeah, that’s all. Love you. Bye.”
William handed the phone back to the security officer and signed it over. “Thank you,” he said as he headed for the restroom.