Chapter 194

Wednesday was off and running by 0700. Turkey’s President Cavdet called all upset - and I knew why before I picked up the phone to talk to him.

‘‘Your cargo planes picked up the nuclear warheads today but they brought none of the promised new ones,’’ he said.

‘‘Yes that is right. I wanted the old ones removed as soon as possible and there were empty cargo planes returning from Iran that could do that. It will be two to three months before production has assembled and tested the new dial-a- yield bombs. Then they will be shipped and installed on the missiles as we discussed,’’ I said.

‘‘We have none to respond to a Russian or Chinese attack in the meantime,’’ he said.

‘‘Russia is no longer the number one threat that it once was. China, on the other hand, might be a bigger threat but the analysts are not waving any red flags that they are an immediate threat,’’ I said.

‘‘I have twelve heavy carriers and twenty five light carriers now that their troops are ashore. There are also thirty guided missile cruisers, over a hundred destroyers, sixty nuclear submarines at sea with a dozen in the Mediterranean Sea and over two hundred heavy bombers in the area. I have another 500 attack and bomber aircraft in the area as well. I think everyone is going to play nice; anything else would be national suicide,’’ I said.

‘‘I can see your point,’’ he said.

‘‘I am still upset that you are still bombing Iran and have not started peace talks,’’ he said.

‘‘Is that why you have rushed troops, armor and artillery to your border with Iran?’ I asked.

‘‘No. I am preparing to repulse the hundreds of thousands of refugees that will come to Turkey on their way to Europe. We simply cannot handle them,’’ he said.

‘‘You can rest easy because I don’t think there will be very many,’’ I said.

We talked another thirty minutes before the call ended.

The generals were waiting at my door with today’s update. ‘‘The forces have captured on the east Semnan, Sari and on the west Amol, Karaj, and Qazvin.”

‘‘Tomorrow we take a lot of small towns and then there is the united push into Tehran from all directions,’’ General Ingram said.

‘‘Tonight Air Force planes are going to drop the new Sunlight flares and bomb the few remaining targets. We are also going to drop a couple more MOABs on the IRG Complex and the Parliament building. The plan is to keep everyone awake all night so they will be more inclined to surrender,’’ he said.

‘‘That’s good to hear. As you know, I will be in Atlanta for the convention tomorrow. Keep me informed,’’ I replied.

I walked General Ingram through the discussions with Philippine President Ramos. We had a short discussion on possible options and solutions. There was to be a call with Ramos later today.

The afternoon came and went quickly; it was full of problems. The CIA intercepted a plot to assassinate me and my mates again. It was a splinter group of Iranians that had infiltrated from Canada. They came from the UK to Canada because of lax immigration laws.

The combined surveillance with the FBI and CIA had identified members of the group and had a location. They were waiting to track the financing for the group. As soon as that was established, they were going to be arrested.

Robert had sent me the information on the group four weeks ago. The speed was a reflection on how slow the government agencies were.

It was in the hands of the Secret Service, FBI and federal Marshals to handle it now. Robert and his ever expanding group of spooks were beyond busy on things for JBG and for me at the girls’ direction.

I closed down the desk early to meet with Adam to finalize the speech for tomorrow night. There had been a change because there was no real progress on the planks today.

Carl Isham called and asked if I could come an hour earlier to help force a decision on some of the planks. Acceptance of the planks and the first vote for the nominee was at 1900.

‘‘Send me the planks before 1300 tomorrow. I will look them over before I get there,’’ I said.

Wednesday became Thursday; General Ingram was in at 0800 with the updates.

‘‘All the small villages and towns around Tehran have surrendered. Tehran and the Niavaran Palace complex are all that is left,’’ he said.

‘‘Negotiate with those in the Palace complex; it is a world heritage site that deserves to be saved. If no agreement can be reached, do whatever you have to do,’’ I said.

‘‘As for as Tehran, have at it whenever you are ready,’’ I said.

I needed to do a day’s worth of work in four hours. The family was coming to make the trip to Atlanta at 1300. Adam was coming with us. I was going to do a run through with the final version of both speeches on the flight to Atlanta.

The media section was filled to the limit and was not going to get their ten minutes today. The speeches were a priority and then a family discussion with my mates.

I had the list of planks from Carl Isham. I spent twenty minutes red-lining the ones that were outright stupid and didn’t belong in a paper you were going to use as goals for the party.

Then I marked through those that I thought would be of little or no interest to voters. Those were the things that were more directed to local elections and should not be an item for a national election.

Improving our schools was always a topic for both parties and they tried to outdo each other with promises of bigger and grander things. The one problem was the liberal educators always found a way to use the funding for more liberal classes and propaganda shoved down the throats of our children. When more federal funding was directed to the states, they reduced the state funding and used it for other special interest projects.

There were plenty of things that voters could see and appreciate like a commitment to get more money to improve the roads.

There were other planks that I red-lined like federal funding for a G6 level of wireless service. I was sure someone connected with the big two communications companies was the reason it got on the list.

Get the government to pay for research and development, then lobby Congress for free grants for the equipment, then get Congress to force the military to give up some of its dedicated frequencies and finally, handsomely charge the public for access to it.

When I was finished there were eighty planks that I thought worthwhile for the platform. Carl and the plank committee could argue it out.

I liked the speeches; the first one was to the delegates at 1800 before the news teams were allowed in and went live at 1900.

Air Force One landed at Atlanta International at 1500. We were heavily guarded as we left the airport and entered the arena. There were the normal paid protesters.

Every movement now seemed to have unlimited money to pay protesters and they were not shy about it, by openly advertising on Craigslist, Face Time and local media. The average citizen no longer had real access to influence politicians.

Protesters paid by big money, special interest groups and favorites of the media carried all the influence that affected most politicians.

Terrorists, death threats and actual attempts on my life limited my access to the average citizen. The closest they could get was near the stage without being checked out by the agencies.

When we walked backstage, the first ballot was in progress; they were nearly done. Carl’s assistant Paul Ryder was back stage watching the tally. It was nearly evenly divided among the four candidates. Nothing unexpected there with the first ballot. When it was completed the horse trading would begin.

‘‘I have the plank items Carl wanted,’’ I said.

‘‘He will be relieved to look at them after all the bullshit on the floor about them. They postponed the debate on them in order to get the first ballot going on time,’’ he said.

I asked the senior Secret Service agent, ‘‘How close a security sweep did today’s group at the convention get on the way in?’’

‘‘Extremely close,’’ he replied.

‘‘Close enough that with my mates and a couple Secret Service agents we can walk around?’’ I said.

‘‘Maybe six agents and you can do that,’’ he said and added a wink.

‘‘Is the Texas group close to the stage? I would like to talk to GW McClintock for a few minutes,’’ I said.

‘‘Yeah he is here,’’ he said.

I placed one of my JBG agents in charge of my portable office and removed a manila file from it.

My group-mates, Secret Service and I made our way around the end of the stage and walked up behind the Texas delegates and GW. Standing behind him, I handed the file to him.

When he opened the file he was looking at a wanted poster with his likeness in the middle. Wanted dead or alive by the US Marshall’s office $10000, reward. Cattle rustler, armed and dangerous.

‘‘Oh crap, I have been caught and nowhere to run,’’ he said.

The delegates and my group had a good laugh at his expense.

“Have you got a few minutes to talk privately?’’ I asked.

“Sure, do you want to do that here? I can scatter the delegates and there is enough noise in here that the conversation would be private,’’ he said.

His delegates scattered and we talked surrounded by family, Secret Service and JBG security ten feet away. ‘‘Do you remember our previous conversation in Texas and are you still interested in participating?’’ I said.

‘‘Yes and yes,’’ he answered.

‘‘Here is what I need you to do,’’ I explained what I had in mind if things went the way we thought.

I and my group went backstage; I needed to get makeup and wired for sound. I had five minutes to talk privately with my mates before my speech.