fingers around one of the crystal stems and turned from the server.
Actually, for Webster it had not been a lovely evening. The Sea Crest mission had called for SMITH & CO., to be completed and the full team extracted before any of the bodies were found. From what Webster had learned not even the work at SMITH & CO. had gone according to plan. Cynthia Leclair had not been at her office, although Testler’s men had effectively improvised to find Leclair at her home. Then, another glitch, Linda Darby, a woman who had initially been seen as nothing more than a loose end, had become a thorn. Testler had sent his two men to question Darby, and then terminate her in a staged rape and murder. But some unidentified force had stepped in and saved her, killing Testler’s two men.
The loss of the two men itself was not a problem. Testler had always been able to put together specialized teams. The remaining problems were Linda Darby and the identification of the forces that had saved her. Webster needed to know who had interfered. But for now, he had appearances to maintain, and one contact, in particular, he wanted to make at this pompous gathering.
Webster had been to the Italian embassy on Whitehaven Street in Washington, D.C., on several occasions. Tonight’s gathering was a smallish affair commemorating the latest update of the Memorandum of Understanding between the United States and Israel regarding the prevention of weapons and war materials to terrorists. He did not understand why Italy was hosting the event.
Webster drifted outside onto the marble balcony and leaned up against the balustrade. He had long been convinced that the industrial and political world was effectively shrinking. The business activities of all countries needed to be based on free enterprise principles. All of it ultimately controlled by a few international kingpins capable of not only grasping the big picture, but of making the hard decisions needed to keep it all in balance.
Traditional democratic governments, wallowing in their need to posture to sound like they were serving the people, had outlived their effectiveness. The selection of leaders could no longer be left in the hands of the fickle rank-and-file citizenry. The overwhelming majority of American voters simply voted for whichever candidate promised the most wrapped in the no-cost lie: a boldfaced falsity told repeatedly by both parties while they spent the taxpayers’ money for anything they believed would garner them votes or campaign contributions. The predictable results were broken promises, bigger deficits, and more and more convoluted laws. In his lifetime, the voters had shown themselves incapable of dismantling the platforms of lies upon which the current political process had been built.
The developed world needed to be run by the multinational corporations. Once in charge, the multinationals, not the people, would elect a council responsible for setting policies designed to see that consumers were treated fairly in the marketplace. Laws would be simplified. Justice would return to the swift status that existed in early America when the hammer building the gallows would ring as if an echo to the rap of the judge’s convicting gavel. Life sentences would be abolished as such terms of incarceration only burdened society. If the crime was sufficiently evil to warrant life in prison, then the verdict should be death by public hanging. Let the public see the results of violating the law. It worked in early America, before the nambie pambies took over.
While competing brands of the same products would be tolerated, efficiency would dictate fewer competing brands, and that would mean higher profits for the companies and lower prices for the citizens. People would live in comfort and not have to endure the unsettling and contentious political cycle of lies and disappointments. In the end the people only wanted to be cared for, to be protected. That was why the people believed the
Actually, for Webster it had not been a lovely evening. The Sea Crest mission had called for SMITH & CO., to be completed and the full team extracted before any of the bodies were found. From what Webster had learned not even the work at SMITH & CO. had gone according to plan. Cynthia Leclair had not been at her office, although Testler’s men had effectively improvised to find Leclair at her home. Then, another glitch, Linda Darby, a woman who had initially been seen as nothing more than a loose end, had become a thorn. Testler had sent his two men to question Darby, and then terminate her in a staged rape and murder. But some unidentified force had stepped in and saved her, killing Testler’s two men.
The loss of the two men itself was not a problem. Testler had always been able to put together specialized teams. The remaining problems were Linda Darby and the identification of the forces that had saved her. Webster needed to know who had interfered. But for now, he had appearances to maintain, and one contact, in particular, he wanted to make at this pompous gathering.
Webster had been to the Italian embassy on Whitehaven Street in Washington, D.C., on several occasions. Tonight’s gathering was a smallish affair commemorating the latest update of the Memorandum of Understanding between the United States and Israel regarding the prevention of weapons and war materials to terrorists. He did not understand why Italy was hosting the event.
Webster drifted outside onto the marble balcony and leaned up against the balustrade. He had long been convinced that the industrial and political world was effectively shrinking. The business activities of all countries needed to be based on free enterprise principles. All of it ultimately controlled by a few international kingpins capable of not only grasping the big picture, but of making the hard decisions needed to keep it all in balance.
Traditional democratic governments, wallowing in their need to posture to sound like they were serving the people, had outlived their effectiveness. The selection of leaders could no longer be left in the hands of the fickle rank-and-file citizenry. The overwhelming majority of American voters simply voted for whichever candidate promised the most wrapped in the no-cost lie: a boldfaced falsity told repeatedly by both parties while they spent the taxpayers’ money for anything they believed would garner them votes or campaign contributions. The predictable results were broken promises, bigger deficits, and more and more convoluted laws. In his lifetime, the voters had shown themselves incapable of dismantling the platforms of lies upon which the current political process had been built.
The developed world needed to be run by the multinational corporations. Once in charge, the multinationals, not the people, would elect a council responsible for setting policies designed to see that consumers were treated fairly in the marketplace. Laws would be simplified. Justice would return to the swift status that existed in early America when the hammer building the gallows would ring as if an echo to the rap of the judge’s convicting gavel. Life sentences would be abolished as such terms of incarceration only burdened society. If the crime was sufficiently evil to warrant life in prison, then the verdict should be death by public hanging. Let the public see the results of violating the law. It worked in early America, before the nambie pambies took over.
While competing brands of the same products would be tolerated, efficiency would dictate fewer competing brands, and that would mean higher profits for the companies and lower prices for the citizens. People would live in comfort and not have to endure the unsettling and contentious political cycle of lies and disappointments. In the end the people only wanted to be cared for, to be protected. That was why the people believed the
Similar Books
