Young Again
Copyright© 2018 by Edward Douglass Patterson
Chapter 44: Meeting in Washington
Sarah’s family, which now included Jenny, along with the three oldest Wilson teenagers, entered the arena where the major meetings were to be held. They were accompanied by two of the Sawyer Security people, whose job was more to discourage attack than prevent it. They carried coolers with food and drink since one of the concerns was poison or drugs in the food or drink. The last high school football game of Jimmy and Bert was on more than one mind.
“Bert, did you ever fantasize about playing indoor football?” Jimmy asked as they carried the biggest cooler.
“Not in the last couple of years. When I was little, Dad and I would watch an NFL game on Sunday, but Mom had a rule of only one game. Dad was overseas when the NFL crashed and burned. Then he was killed.” Bert glanced at his sister, Kelly. She, Jenny, and John were each carrying smaller coolers.
“I never understood what you and Dad saw in those games. They were so violent, and some of those players were even worse off the field.” Kelly didn’t turn around as she spoke.
“Well, the indoor football owners sure knew how to capitalize on the situation.” John was careful where he put his feet as most of his attention was on the almost new arena.
“Mrs. Pierce, do you worry about money and fame affecting Sarah and Ashley just like it did the NFL players?” Kelly raised her voice slightly since the older Pierces were a little ahead of them.
Sally stopped and turned around to face the young people. “I did at first, but Sarah and Ashley each have found someone in Bert and John who are as good for them as Jenny is for Jimmy. I think that you and Ali have even a better match.”
Kelly blushed.
Bert looked around. “I think that is the area we’re supposed to meet our host.”
“I’m right behind you.” A man about Jim’s age with a much younger woman spoke up. “I take it you don’t like hot dogs and beer. At my box suite, we can have steak and lobster delivered.”
“We do, but we had a little incident at a football game where they drugged the water. We want to be careful.” Jim moved toward their host. “Jim Pierce. Mr. Stillman, thank you for sharing your suite with us, especially on such short notice.” After they shook hands, he continued. “This is my wife, Sally. Our son, Jimmy. His fiancée, Jenny Giordano. Bert, Kelly, and John Wilson. Harry Young and Brenda White are with Sawyer Security.”
“This is my wife, Heather.” The smile on Norman Stillman’s face grew when he introduced his wife. “Please call me Norm. As to hosting you in my suite, when Ruth called and mentioned that her niece wanted a box suite for some important people, I realized that it was a great opportunity to learn more about what was really going on. Not to mention that I owe Ruthless a number of favors.” He laughed.
As he rode to the meeting in his armored limo, President DeSantis listened to Stan Jamison report on the status of the security arrangements.
“Stan, you seem to be implying that working with Marsha and the other people from California is going very smoothly.” Mario smiled at the look on Stan’s face.
“Sir, except for two points, they have readily accepted any decision I made, even if their suggestions were also good. Maybe it helped that I readily went with some of their other suggestions, which took into account things that I hadn’t. We have had most of our problems with the security details for most of the major countries. Well, except for Russia.” They both knew why that was but didn’t mention it.
“What were the two points?” Mario suspected that he knew.
“The guarding arrangements of Jinghua and her sister.” Stan sighed. “Ashley and Sarah are the central part of the security. With Jinghua, either Ashley and Jian Chang will be at her side at all times. They have pointed out that the Secret Service’s primary objective there is to protect Jinghua.” He paused. “The two Chinese generals repeatedly insisted on knowing how we planned to protect the Daughter of the Earth. They brought extra people thinking that they would be in charge of it. Jinghua called them and they haven’t said anything more.”
“Stan, I should have let you read the briefing paper that I got on the Daughter of the Earth.” Mario paused trying to think how to convey the information succinctly. “The earliest mention of the Daughter of the Earth was over five thousand years ago in China. We may think of George Washington as the father of our country but to the Chinese, the Daughter of the Earth is the mother of China. Think about how you would feel if he was here and the British were protecting him.”
Stan sat still and said nothing for a few seconds. “Then why is Lyani getting more security from them? Not the Chinese but the SEALs.”
Mario didn’t say anything, just smiled.
Nurse Cecilia Van pushed Lyani’s wheelchair across the floor to where they were going to be sitting. Sarah and Dr. May Flower-Stanley were on one side, and her husband Tony was on the other side of Lyani. The other SEALs followed them.
“Mother, this big room is for throwing a ball around?” Lyani spoke in their native language.
Cecilia ignored the question. As Lyani’s nurse, she wasn’t supposed to know the language.
Sarah answered. “Did you not find, as you made more things to make life easier, that you needed less time to handle your food, clothing, and shelter needs? With all the people we have, people can use inventions that allow them to provide food, clothing, and shelter for many. Not everyone is needed for these things, so we have found other things for people to do that others want. I’m not sure how to explain it for you since your life has been so secluded.”
“Oh, I have played with a ball with the young girls. The old women would sometimes just sit and watch, especially when they were very old and couldn’t do much work. I just cannot imagine enough people to fill all these chairs watching people throw a ball around.”
Sarah turned her attention to all of the seats in the arena. More were filled than she had expected. She thought about all of them just watching Lyani and a young girl playing catch. “Lyani, your view of things makes me look again at that which I thought I understood. Thank you, sister.”
“I have found much to learn since awakening.” Cecilia said in English. She wheeled Lyani into the open spot where they would be sitting. She took the chair to Lyani’s right with Tony standing in front of his chair next to her. He and Sarah scanned the arena while the other SEALs sat but were still alert.
“My family is in the box suite upper left near the far goal line.”
“Sarah, some of your new family is sitting with you.” Cecilia spoke softly.
“Sorry, mother.” Sarah replied with a little laugh. She turned as she heard people approaching the other side of the small stage next to them. It was Jinghua, Jian, Ashley, and their security taking their seats. They were the last to be seated before the President came out. It was timed to give Jinghua more importance than her sister and mother. As she looked over at them, she heard the change in the crowd noise as the President of the United States came into view. Sarah and Tony took their seats.
There was no music or a request for people to stand as Mario walked up onto the stage. He had decided over many objections not to emphasize his position as the president of the host country. He knew that his position today was as host. Others were much more important, even the two young girls who had decided also to take lesser roles. He walked over to the podium. A short podium since Jinghua and Jaia were only a little over five feet tall.
As he waited for the crowd to quiet, he looked around at the people gathered. He, the Ancients, and their escorts were the only ones on the arena floor. Everyone else was in the permanent seating. The major delegations were in the lowest seats. Other countries were behind them. That Lenya had traded places with the Vatican so that the Pope could have a good view at first had surprised him, but then he realized the political implication of what she had done when it became widely known who her grandmother was.
When the crowd quieted enough so that he wouldn’t have to shout, he began. “People of Earth and their various leaders and representatives that have joined us here today, I expect that you will learn much today and in our later meetings. I know that I expect to learn more than I have over the past months. Let us start with how we expect all of us to be healthier and younger in the near future. To start that presentation, I turn over the podium to Doctor May Flower-Stanley.”
When May approached, they shook hands but said nothing. The President of the United States took the only seat on the stage. His attention was on May as she began to speak.
“I am Doctor May Flower-Stanley. I am a surgeon who had a reputation for some wild ideas about plants that have way too many beneficial properties to be natural. My then-future husband, Doctor Commander Barnaby Stanley, got me invited to a meeting with Mark Sawyer to discuss how to discover how and why he had become younger and healthier. What we found sounds, without proof, even wilder than my ideas. I will be presenting that proof gathered and developed with the help of medical researchers at Stanford University. First, though, let us talk about the proof that many of you may have had the chance to see firsthand.”
May pointed to where Mark sat with the Pope. Mark rose from his chair.
“Mark Sawyer made himself available for people to meet as they came in today. He is seventy years old and looks twenty. Medical testing at Stanford places him at the top level of athletes in their early twenties. If we were to repeat those tests with recent revisions to the tests, Mark would come out ahead of them.” She nodded to Mark, who sat down.
“Now we had a single occurrence of this change, and we started to look into what had caused it to happen to Mark Sawyer. The only thing we thought we knew was that it happened to him while he worried about the Alzheimer’s disease that he was recently diagnosed to have. He was alone at his mountain cabin and became sick. On the night of the North Korean attack, he fell asleep in a chair on the porch. The original suspicion was that a biological warhead of the North Korean missile that the American anti-missile didn’t fully destroy may have been the cause. At our initial meeting, Sarah Pierce...” May pointed towards her. “... hypothesized that it was almost impossible for a nuclear explosion to change a harmful biological agent into an extremely powerful beneficial agent. I agreed with her, so I brought up my theory of a plant with such beneficial properties, which later also turned out to be wrong. With the aid of the US military, we started to investigate the area around the cabin. Ed Colson, a local Forest Ranger, informed us about a strange area nearby which appeared to be ancient carved rock, as in a building in the mountainside. It could only be noticed under certain conditions.”
May paused.
“On President DeSantis’s order, an A-10 jet with ground-penetrating radar was sent to check out the area. The plane was shot down with an EMP weapon. Further investigations were hindered by this same EMP weapon. Phones, cameras, computers, and even a chainsaw were made permanently nonfunctioning by the EMP weapon. Our investigation, which would include moving hundreds of tons of rocks, would have to be done by manual and animal labor. Yes, we had found physical evidence that there was something built into the mountainside. Items found put the age at thirteen thousand years. We are now supplying the location of a website where that information is available. We are also showing some of the information on the playback displays of the arena. Let us take some time for you to look at this information and also take some questions.” May’s last words were not heard by many in the arena, as the commotion caused by the information had gotten very loud.
Norm turned to Jim. “What are the plans for getting inside the mountain?”
“With some help, we were able to get in. The help and what we found are what is important, plus the other information we were provided. I’ll leave it to the presentation to explain further.” Norm looked at the others and could tell that none would be providing the information.
“Who are the young women seated beside your daughter and Ashley Sawyer?”
Heather’s question brought a smile to Sally’s face. Young women! “Sarah and Ashley are helping to guard them. They will be speaking later.” She realized she needed to say more. “Jinghua, who is seated beside Ashley, was the Stanford Faculty Senate Chairman. The man next to her is her husband, Jian Chang. Lyani, who is seated next to Sarah, is her sister.”
“Master Jian Chang?” Heather pulled a small set of binoculars out of her purse to look at Jian. “You found the plant that caused Mark Sawyer to become young again! I met Master Chang a couple of years ago.”
“Heather has a third-degree black belt and two doctorates.” It was obvious that Norm liked to brag about his wife’s accomplishments.
“Yes, we found the source of what caused Mark to change.” Sally was unsure how much more to explain.
Yelling from the floor diverted their attention there.
“God will smite thee for these lies.” An older man followed by three younger ones was trying to get onto the floor. More uniformed officers were heading towards them to support the one officer trying to block their way.
Less than a minute after the start of the disturbance, President DeSantis spoke into the microphone on the stage. “Sir, if you wish to quietly listen to the rest of the presentation, we will be open to more questions and comments later.”
May tapped Mario on the shoulder, then indicated the microphone. He moved aside to let her speak. “Sir, some who are very religious have found that what they have learned has reinforced their faith. I have not been religious, but in talking with them, I find I have to reexamine my beliefs. What we will be telling you will show much of what we thought we knew about history was wrong.”
Their words had no effect on the four men, who had to be carried away screaming.
Omara had little use for television, so Niyoosha found himself playing host to him in his office, which had a very large flat screen that he used for news programs and data presentation. They were watching the Al Jazeera rebroadcast of the meeting in Washington. Omara had quieted down after the initial tirade when he saw Jinghua and Lyani.
“Do the Pakistanis have a missile that can destroy Washington?” Omara didn’t take his eyes from the television.
“No, only the Russians, the Chinese, the French, the British, and possibly the Israelis have such missiles and the nuclear weapons for them. Both the Russians and the Chinese have told anyone with nuclear weapons that they would do what China did to North Korea if they used any nuclear weapons. We have little chance of getting someone to act for us.”
“We will make plans to take over several countries. Those Christians still believe in their god. I should have spent more effort to wipe them out.”
Niyoosha’s eyes moved to Omara while continuing to face the television. Over the past couple of months, he had learned much about his master. His fear of the man had increased, but he now saw that he had more flaws than he ever suspected. Still, he was a hard, driven man that didn’t suffer failures in others. Niyoosha saw why earlier men would have treated him as a god, which was one of the things he had recently learned. “Should I start making plans?”
“No, let us learn all that they plan to tell. It will affect what we do. I’ll go to the harem after this. Have plans made for me to review in two days.”
“Yes, Master.” He thought only briefly about what would be happening to those in the harem. He would have to see about more replacements.
After the removal of the four men, the crowd had quieted enough to proceed with the meeting. That there were to be more revelations had brought some order.
May spoke loudly to be heard, which eventually quieted the crowd. “Plans were being made for restoring old steam-powered equipment to help in digging out the ruins, but Ashley and Sarah saw a need for some action now. They arranged to have many of the people in the know about what we had learned along with their families spend a weekend camping near the Sawyer’s cabin. They expected a frost soon and wanted help looking for the plant that we thought caused Mark’s change. They also expected that some might also undergo the same change that Mark did. They were both wrong and right, but we learned more.”
May paused for the dramatic effect. Not that she felt it was needed, but it was how they had planned the presentation.
“We discovered someone that didn’t need the change, since she had been alive when the bunker in the mountain was built. I will let her tell her story. Jinghua, Daughter of the Earth.” May’s hand swept toward her.
Jinghua followed closely by Jian and Ashley joined May and Mario on the stage. After they shook hands, May returned to her seat next to Sarah. Jian and Ashley stood slightly behind and to either side of Jinghua.