Chapter 18: An Enemy Becomes an Ally

A few years ago, Clara and I had tasked our Advisory Council with brain storming our goals and what we would need in terms of people and materials after we came out of the Silos. We had joined them several times during their brain storming sessions and in one of them, they had discussed the patrols that our External Security Group would be conducting. They had decided that it would be advisable to have a negotiator with each patrol, who could speak and negotiate for the Ark Society when the patrol encountered survivors. The remark about a negotiator caused me to think of Lyle, but at the time, I was not ready to enlist his aid.

About two years ago, I had been toying with the idea of setting up a department within the Habitation Department that would locate people who were capable and experienced negotiators and social integrators. When I thought of all the different personality types that we would have in the Ark, I could see a problem in the future with getting them to work together in a cohesive fashion. The only person that I had had contact with who seemed even remotely qualified to head up such a group was Undersecretary George Lyle. I decided it was time to enlist Lyle’s services.

I didn’t really like the man from my past dealings, but Senator Blucher had told me he was a reasonably honest government official and formidable in the field of Diplomacy. It was time for me to set aside my personal dislike of the man and talk with him about what he could do to assist us in saving human civilization. It was getting on toward late afternoon in Washington D.C., so I place a call to his office and told his secretary who I was and that I would like to speak with Undersecretary Lyle about an important matter if he had a few minutes available. She placed me on hold, and a few moments later, Lyle came on the line.

“My secretary tells me that you would like to speak with me about an important matter Mr. Reppa, and my calendar is open for an hour.”

“Mr. Undersecretary, I want to be up front with you. As you know, we are not what I would call friends, but during my last call, I mentioned that our nation would need you in the coming years. Well I have had something come up recently that needs to be handled by someone of your caliber. I was wondering if you and your wife, if you are married, would be able to join me in Auburn this weekend as my guests. I imagine you are aware of the meteoroids and virus situation that I announced at Senator Blume’s hearing. We can discuss that in more depth, give the two of you a tour of our facilities, and discuss what you can do to aid us if you are interested.”

“I agree with you Mr. Reppa that we aren’t friends, but considering the situation, my wife and I would be happy to sit down with you and discuss how we could assist your organization. My wife and I have no plans for this weekend, so it will be fine with me and I will let you know if my wife has a conflict that can’t be changed.”

“Let me transfer you to my secretary so you can give her your preferences for travel arrangements. If there is nothing more, I will meet you at the airport on Friday evening.” I transferred Lyle to Joan and asked her to make travel arrangements for Mr. and Mrs. Lyle and have the tickets delivered to him by courier. After saying a final goodbye to Lyle, I hung up the phone and called Asal to let her know we would be having two houseguests this weekend. With that out of the way, I told Joan to include limousine service to the airport and back home for Lyle and his wife. Clara, Julie, Samantha, and I would meet them at the Sacramento airport and escort them to our home. One of the important things Lyle said to me didn’t register until later.

At dinner that evening, I suggested to my Bond Mates that we meet after dinner for a short family meeting. After dinner, we gathered in the family room, which was probably the most popular room in our house.

Normally, the person initiating the family meeting became the meeting chairman. I announced that I had two items of new business then asked if anyone else had additional new business to discuss; no one but me had new business. I then asked if there was any old business that needed to be addressed before we started the new business; there was none that anyone wanted to discuss, so I introduced my new business.

To start with, our Advisory Council mentioned that we might need negotiating teams to talk with survivor groups after we returned to the surface. I informed everyone that I had invited Undersecretary Lyle and his wife to be our houseguests this weekend. Everyone knew of the problems we had with Lyle over the past years, and I had to explain the current status of affairs with him and the task I planned to ask him to assume. I will be briefing him regarding the Ark and giving him and his wife a tour of our facilities. Other than that and meeting him at the airport Friday evening, I have no specific plans. Everyone needs to be flexible and observant this weekend for we need to make a good impression on him, and learn everything we can about him and his wife.

The second item is that Mike and his wife, Bill, Sheryl and their ladies, and Charlie and Tim and their ladies will be here for dinner tomorrow. Dinner is to be a combination of business and pleasure with business focusing on our need to investigate the personal security needs of our people.

This second announcement led to a lively discussion regarding why we would need personal security. We all were aware of the general types of problems the Ark Foundation would face but we hadn’t considered the impact the problems might have on our personal lives. Bob and Sharna had equipped a number of our key personnel, my Bond Mates, and me with personal force fields that would protect us from most forms of harm, but we could still be harmed or killed in several ways. I suggested that we defer an in-depth conversation until dinner the following evening so everyone could take part in the conversation.

The following day was Thursday and in addition to my regular duties, I also had to prepare for Undersecretary Lyle’s visit. Airline meals are not the most appetizing and the portion served is not always filling, so before going to work I talked with Asal about her and her daughters preparing a late evening meal/snack for when Lyle and his wife arrived Friday evening, something light that we could all snack on while we talked Friday evening. I also asked Asal to fix us an early dinner tomorrow, so we could get to the airport on time.

Dinner Thursday evening was wonderful. Asal had several new recipes, so she fixed several Mexican dishes for us. Dinner was great and we talked about our need for personal security as we ate. I did find it odd to have Mexican dishes for the main course and Persian dishes for dessert, although our dessert did remind me of sopapillas.

We had moved the discussion to the family room and everyone had their preferred after dinner drink, when Charlie said, “Jon, I have several items to address regarding security. To start with, the fringe elements will be out in force now that you have made the news public.”

“Yeah, I agree with you Charlie.

“We need to increase security at the Auburn and Drytown Silos. When we start getting demonstrators at our gates, we need to increase the number of security guards we have inside of the Silos as a response team. I think we should stay at two security guards in the Freight Yards; increasing their number might seem inflammatory to the demonstrators. However, if the demonstrator’s numbers increase to more than a couple of dozen or the mood becomes angry then we need to look at increasing our personnel at that location.

“A second thing I think you need to do Jon is to ensure the personal safety of our personnel and their families. A large number of our non-management people still live outside of the Ark. The only way to be sure that they are safe is to have them move into the Auburn Silo. You need to have an all-hands meeting to explain the current and future risks that they will incur by not living in the Silo.

“There is also the problem of personal belongings that we briefly addressed sometime ago. Our employees will be able to bring all of their personal belongings with them to their new homes. It is my understanding that when the short-term residents move into the Silo, all they will be allowed to bring is a couple of suitcases of belongings for each person. The disparity between our employees’ belongings and the limits on what the future inhabitants can bring will cause problems. We need to find a way to deal with this problem. We will also have problems if our employees wait to move into the Ark until after the short-term residents start moving into the Ark. I suggest we set a deadline for moving into the Ark for our employees. If they fail to meet that deadline, then they can only bring two suitcases of belongs with them when they do move in.

“My fourth recommendation is that if the Ark Foundation’s personnel have to travel out of our local area on business, we need to provide them with a security detail.

We concluded our evening meeting with my asking Joan to schedule a meeting of all key Ark Foundation employees for next week so we could address the issue of all of our employees moving into the Ark.

Lyle and his wife’s flight would be arriving at about 8:00 PM, so Clara, Julie, Samantha, and I left work early the next day. After we got home, Clara checked out the room Asal and her daughters had prepared for Lyle and his wife. We had dinner and then we changed into our casual clothes and relaxed until it was time to leave for the airport.

We had purchased a luxury passenger van that would carry all of us when we went out as a family and had decided to take the van so all six of us could ride together. Once we started having kids, we quickly outgrew the van and had to buy a second van.

We arrived at the airport about 25 minutes before the flight was due to arrive and it was running about 15 minutes late; so with a 40 minute wait ahead of us, we stopped for coffee at one of the airport kiosks. While waiting for the plane’s arrival, we reviewed what we hoped to accomplish by recruiting Lyle and how we could structure the proposed department. Finally, the flight’s arrival was announced, and after giving the plane enough time to get to the gate, we wandered over to the security checkpoint to wait for Lyle and his wife.

They looked tired as they came down the concourse, so after meeting them and introducing ourselves, we collected their bags from the baggage carousel and headed for the van. While I drove them back to the house, Clara explained our plans for the next two days. Once Clara finished, I asked Kyle if he had any questions or requests relative to our plans for the weekend.

Lyle responded with, “Intellectually I know it is true, but I still have difficulty accepting the story that you told me about your two aliens, Bob and Sharna. I also believe that you took part in going to Iran and bringing back the prisoners. I want to know the truth about those matters.

“Okay.”

I consulted with Bob and then took the next freeway exit. After driving to an area where we could not be easily observed, I turned off the engine, and said, “Lyle, Bob will take us the rest of the way home.”

Lyle and Sheila gave me a funny look, which changed to disbelief and concern when the van was suddenly airborne. Bob’s quirky sense of humor struck again. Instead of boosting us high enough to move cross-country toward the Freight Yard, he put us in orbit. He held us there for a few minutes so everyone could have a good look, and the next thing we knew, we were head toward the surface at a very high speed. Bob gently set the van down in the Freight Yard parking lot, and I turned to Lyle and said, “That was how Bob and I traveled to Iran, but at a much higher speed and altitude.”

I don’t recall Lyle ever again doubting the existence of Bob and Sharna and he was satisfied with my admission of having gone on the Iranian expedition. My ladies and I joined Lyle and Shelia for a light evening snack before they headed to bed; they were still running on east coast time and it was after midnight in Washington D.C. Most of the conversation that evening centered on Bob putting us into orbit, and about Bob and Sharna in general.

I was up early the next morning and headed to the kitchen for my morning coffee. Asal and Shelia were there ahead of me so I joined them at the kitchen table; Dorri and Tara were toasting bread and frying bacon for breakfast. Asal gave me a pointed look and told me that while Clara and I had been talking with Lyle last night, she and Shelia had been talking about Shelia’s job back on the East coast; it seems that she was a medical researcher that specialized in viruses. That got my attention and I asked Bob to check on her background for if she was what I thought she was then she would be a good addition to our virus research program. We could hear a group heading our way, so Asal got her omelet fillings out of the refrigerator and began fixing cook to order omelets.

After breakfast, Clara, Julie, Samantha, and I took Lyle and Shelia to my office on Level 16. When we were settled in my office, I began a detailed briefing that covered the meteoroid storm, the virus, the purposes of the Ark, and the Ark Foundation. During the briefing, I had answered Shelia and Lyle’s questions.

Lyle and Shelia had one main problem with what I told them. They felt we had failed to inform the rest of the world of the problem in time for them to adequately prepare for the oncoming threat to humanity. Even though they understood my explanation for why we had held off telling the world about the meteoroids and virus, they still felt that we should have at least told the world leaders about the problem long before we did.

I decided to consider adding Lyle to the team that was formulating the approach to use for the pickups of short-term residents if he was interested in joining our group. Not only would his experience in diplomacy be a big help, but I had always found that it was easy to be judgmental about a decision if you were not part of the process that led to the decision. I would let him deal with the decision of just how much should be told to the general public.

“Lyle, there are several tasks in the Ark Foundation that would benefit from your abilities. I’m thinking of having you work on several tasks. Your long-term task would be to recruit and train a group of negotiators who would work with our External Security Group. When the group is out on patrol and encounters a group of survivors, the negotiator would talk them into joining our group. We also have a problem that will need a good Public Relations position developed that addresses how we are to handle recruitment applications that we turn down between now and the arrival of the meteoroids. Are you interested?

“Yes, but I will have to discuss this with Shelia. She has her career and I don’t know how she would feel about moving out here.”

Thinking back I realized that I had totally missed Lyle including his wife when he said we could discuss how they (i.e., he and his wife) could help the Ark Foundation. It didn’t register then and I was scrambling mentally to fit Sheila into our plans so I could discuss and an important role for her in our effort.

“What type of work do you do Shelia?”

“I am a researcher with the Phillip and Carr Viral Research Foundation and we are working on a cure for the hepatitis C virus (HCV). My group’s project is a joint effort with the research group at UC Davis, and it is my hope that I can spend sometime talking with them during this trip.”