“Have you called Devin?”
“I’ve been trying. He is out in the field at the crash site and isn’t answering my calls,” Craig told him.
“I don’t like this. I know he is to report directly to me but he sure the hell should at least return the calls of the Secretary of Defense. He can’t be that busy.”
“All I can tell you sir, is that he has refused to take my calls. I’ve had my staff calling almost nonstop, trying to persuade someone to get him on the phone.”
“All right Craig. I’ll call him myself,” he said.
It took a few minutes before they were able to make the connection.
“I want to speak to General Devin; this is the President of the United States.”
“Yeah, right, and I’m the Queen of England,” the man at the other end said.
“Son, I don’t know who you are and you damn sure don’t want me to find out. This is the President aboard Air Force One and you had better put me through to the general.”
“Oh God. Sorry Mr. President. I thought it one of the men pulling a prank on me. I’ll connect you immediately,” he stammered.
The President waited, shifting his weight from foot to foot. Almost a minute went by before a different person came on the line.
“I’m sorry sir. General Devin is directing the recovery operation and doesn’t have time to talk. He said he simply can’t come to the phone now. He asked me to relay his regrets and to tell you that he would return your call just as soon as he has a free minute.”
The President fumed, his anger starting to rise. He doesn’t have time to talk to the President of the United States? It was becoming apparent that maybe he had gone too far in his praise of the general.
“I want General Devin on the line right now, do you understand?”
“Yes sir,” the man said.
Another long lapse of time before the man came back on the line.
“Sir, he instructed me to tell you he would call just as soon as he can. He can’t talk right now. I’m sorry Mr. President but I can’t make him come to the phone.”
“Incredible. And he knows it’s the President?”
“Yes sir. I made it quite clear several times that it was you personally on the line, Sir” he said.
“Well. This is quite interesting. All right, I’ll be interested in hearing what he has to say when he does have the time,” President Sampson said and hung up.
He was furious. No one under his command was going to put off talking to him. Who in the hell did he think he was? Did he feel that he was above the President? It was simply unacceptable. He called the Secretary of Defense back, “Craig, I want you to meet me at the White House as soon as we land.”
“Yes sir. I checked your position a few minutes ago and they say you are about fifty minutes from the airport. Adding another twenty for the helo, would make it about 11:45 a.m. I’ll be there,” he said.
The President went back to his seat. What had started out as a lovely day was quickly turning into a day full of potential conflict. He read the telex once more and then tossed it on the stack. General Devin was not going to tell the President of the United States that he was too busy to talk to him. There were going to be some significant changes made.
Devin had too much unchecked power and that was about to come to a screeching halt. The nation’s secrets are important but it was far too dangerous to let one man have total control.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
“General, the President is hopping mad,” the Major told him.
“I don’t give a damn if he is. He will just have to get over it. I have a job to do and that’s my priority now. You just take care of getting the retractions in the media. I don’t want anyone to report it as an experimental secret project. This was nothing more than a new type of European fighter that was on loan. It is not experimental; they have been around for years. This one just happened to be modified for test results. Got it?”
“Yes sir, but it has already gotten out. It’s in the papers already,”
“I don’t give a good goddamn. Deny the source. Tell them they are full of crap,” he said.
“Yes sir, but it’s going to be a hard sell. Too many people got to see it before the area was secured.”
“I didn’t ask you to whine did I? I said fix it, and that’s what I mean. Take care of it. Whatever you have to do. I want anyone that says differently taken care of.”
“How?”
“Are you in charge of Media Relations or not major? When I say taken care of, I mean do whatever you have to do. Get this out of the news and all other media. Take care of it major or else I will have someone else replace you. Does that make it clear enough?”
“Yes sir.”
“Now get out of my sight and do your job,” Devin snarled. He immediately turned his attention back to the loading of the main section of the craft.
“Get some tarps or something over that piece you dumbasses,” he yelled to the men struggling with the fuselage.
“Come on, get with it, I don’t want this to take all day,” he yelled at them.
The men redoubled their efforts. You did not want to be singled out by General Devin or get on his shit list. Five hours later, most of the larger pieces of the craft had been removed and were on their way to Area-51. A team stayed behind to recover as many of the smaller pieces as possible. Now all he had to do was get the President off his back.
CHAPTER THIRTY
George Snapp sat with Lake and Barnett. It was the second time they had met as a group at the same location.
“Dr. Barnett, were you experimenting with splicing the alien’s DNA with human DNA?”
“In a roundabout way, I suppose that would be accurate. At first we just wanted to find a way to stop J’s cell degeneration. We must have tried a hundred different avenues but nothing would work. Somewhere along the line trying to combine human and alien DNA became one of our goals.”
“But why? Why would you want to do that?”
“Two reasons. If we could isolate the gene that would allow cells to regenerate, we could change the life expectancy of everyone on earth. The second, and most important in my mind, was that when we finally figure out how to bend time, humans will be exposed to all sorts of different environments. If they had the alien DNA genes incorporated into them, they would stand a much better chance of survival.”
“Wouldn’t extending the life expectancy cause even further overpopulation?”
“Well, maybe for a while, but once we started space exploration, we could start whole colonies on other worlds,” Barnett replied.
“And you really believe that?”
“I do.”
“I think you have been out of the real world too long doctor. People aren’t going to just pack up and leave. Earth is their home.”
“When the food supply starts to run out, they’ll go,” he said.
“Doctor Lake, do you buy this?”
“I haven’t really thought about it that much. I was just working on how to make the damn ship fly the way it is supposed to,” Lake answered.
“Still, you must have some thoughts on this,” Snapp pressed.
“I believe Dan may be right. I think at first many people will be enticed by the adventure and potential wealth they could discover. If some rare mineral like gold or diamonds or even Uup-115 is found who knows how many will decide to take the risk? Sort of like the land grab when the west was opened up. The adventure will be too alluring for some to turn down. But,” he said, taking a drink of Diet Coke, “It may not be a big enough number or, once they get there, they may find out it was harder than they expected and want to return to Earth,” he said.