“First, you will need to spend some time after dinner, and probably most of tomorrow morning with my Press Secretary. You must come forward before the press finds you and has time to fill in their own blanks on this existing story, which they will. None of what they will come up with will be accurate. That will not stop some of them from reporting their opinions of the situation, unless we get you out in front of this. You coming forward will shorten the duration of their interest in this story and allow us to control the spin,” he said, pausing to sip his wine.
“Second, after a week or two of press attention, which you will almost certainly hate, you will meet some Senators, one hundred of them in fact. You may like this activity even less than dealing the press, but you will need to smile, and be nice to all of them. You will find this very repetitious, as they will all ask virtually identical questions.
“Miss Cooper, for much of this you should go with him. You two make a great looking couple, and it will be hard to spin either of you into some kind of murderous monster. The optics of the entire thing go better if you are with him because, Sandy, to be completely honest here, you are much prettier than Frank is. It will make people sympathetic in ways. Now Frank, before the press portion of this errand begins we need to work out what details of the mission you can discuss,” said the President.
“Me sir? I have to work, I can’t, I mean the E.R,” Sandy wasn’t sure what to say but was certain that being on the nightly broadcast news was not something she wanted any part of. The entire situation seemed as though it was happening to someone else. Maybe she just hoped this part of her day was happening to someone else.
The President held up his hand, again, asking her to stop for a minute. It was a bad habit his wife found annoying and he knew he should not do it, but he did it anyway, “Sandy, as I have just learned today the hospital you worked at, and the apartment you rent are, unfortunately, inside what will be the newly expanded radiation hazard zone. I am ordering an evacuation of that area. Someone from my staff will help you find a job here in the Washington DC area. If you even want a job after we finish this conversation. I do apologize having to tell you all of this, and being the one forced to put a bad twist on an otherwise once in a lifetime day,” said the President.
She noticed that he was always certain of himself and liked to just cut to the heart of matters rather than hint around about things. It made for an interesting conversational style, and very efficient use of time. But she was curious what he was building up to, there was obviously something pretty big coming.
“Well sir, I was going to have to move for this man anyway, but he lives at Fort Bragg so why would I want to be here? What is it you aren’t telling us?” she asked.
The President could only smile, “I like her. Now, Frank, I know you are going to argue with me on this but, hear me out before you protest.”
Frank studied the man carefully, “Mr. President you are my Commander in Chief. I will do anything you ask if I am capable.”
“Excellent! See Les, I knew he would say that. You owe me $20,” said the President.
Frank couldn’t help but laugh in the middle of a gulp of wine, embarrassing himself a bit, and spilling a little on his shirt in the process.
“Something funny there Frank?” asked Scott with an amused look.
“Sir, I have a series of bets with the men on my team on all manner of things. The normal denomination is $20. I just find it funny, I thought we were the only ones that did stupid bets on random things,” he answered.
“I knew we would get along,” chuckled the President. “Now the part that you won’t like. I am having you transferred here. I found out you made the list for promotion to Major. Congratulations by the way, and no I didn’t do anything to induce that. The promotion happened through normal channels.
“Once you are done with the press errand, and maybe a week off in between so you two can spend some real time with your future in-laws, I am going to submit your name to the Senate as my pick to fill the office of the Vice President. Then you will go meet the one hundred lawmakers I spoke of. Most of whom wanted that job, and will also be responsible for your confirmation to the office.”
Frank was silent with his mouth agape.
Sandy just stared at the President without blinking.
“Mr. President I was right. That $20 please,” said the Chief of Staff with a slight chuckle.
“Sir, me? There must be someone else. A Governor or something?” he stammered.
“In the brief time I have held this office I have gotten phone calls, or visits from everyone in either a current Governor office or the Senate hinting at being the only one qualified for the job. Out of those one hundred Senators, I have gotten almost as many hints that they won’t let any other Senator pass through the confirmation process without a long drawn out fight. As if I didn’t have enough to do.
“The country needs a Vice President, and given all of the political and legal crap that fired the last President we don’t need more gridlock. We have a country to rebuild, a war to fight, and a military that was stretched further than it should have been even before we were attacked,” said the President.
The President was really turning on the charm.
Frank was struggling to find a way to tell the man no, “Well, Mister President, but I am a warfighter, not a politician. Besides I thought there was an age requirement. Do I even meet that I mean I am only 34,” he said knowing he sounded feeble in his argument.
“You turn 35 next Friday and according to the Constitution you only need to be 35. What you say is true about not being a politician. Considering that we have a military industrial complex to rebuild I have a question for you. Who better to help do that than an experienced warfighter, and soon to be a national hero?
“As the Vice President, you could be a large part of that process. As Vice President, you have no Constitutional duties other than to have a pulse, but you can help put together the recommendations. With your impeccable service record, combined with what will be your new found public hero status as the team leader who captured the valuable POW, you will be a great help in getting any necessary legislation through Congress,” said the President.
Frank looked quickly at Sandy then at the President, “Mr. President, no offense but she has no security clearance. Should we be talking about what that mission really accomplished?”
“Oh, that. I know. The Iranians have already released the identity of the gentleman we have through their news agencies,” he turned to look at Sandy, “Your fiancé here and his men ran an operation which yielded us a POW in the form of the Iranian’s number one nuclear weapons guy. As a result of that action, in all likelihood, they have lost their capability for additional nuclear strikes,” said the President.
“I should add that in that part of the world they look at military and civilian much differently than we do. So while we would view men like him civilian, they do not. We were well within our rights to do this. Despite their claims, no war crimes were committed in this process,” Lester added.
“I had a feeling he did something big to deserve last night’s dinner. I had no idea it was that big,” she squeezed his hand, “Mister President, he won’t tell me, that thing on the news with the kids? Why would they do something like that?” she asked.
“Total fabrication. I am afraid, and many details will remain classified for a very long time. These guys came out under a moderate amount of fire with much more headed their way, but they did their job flawlessly. No civilian casualties resulted. The Iranians put the women and kids there, probably in an attempt to gain sympathy. They were probably dead in a morgue before the attack, and while we don’t think they killed them for the picture, we do believe they mutilated the bodies,” Scott answered while Lester nodded all though his statement.