Chapter 10

Sunday was quietly productive. I sent the staff ahead, so I could be left on my own – well, on my own with a bunch of Secret Service Agents crawling all over the place. I needed space to get my head wrapped around the task of taking control of the drifting agencies and forcing them to focus on the mission, instead their own power.

Breakfast and lunch were behind me before I realized how hard I was concentrating. When Jason announced my chopper was ready to take me to Air Force Two, I found that I needed the break. Mary nearly cried when told her I didn't know when I could get away for another weekend at home, but I told her to take good care of things, and that I'd see her soon.

The helicopter ride was very bumpy, but the flight home was great. After takeoff, and having a light snack, I changed into an old warm up suit, and tried out the nice, cozy, bed, and slept most of the whole way home.

Back at the residence, I saw that Rick had left me a long email covering the team he'd been able to put together, and asking how I wished to move forward. I called him, instead of emailing to show my determination to get things done, which shocked the crap out of him, and told him I'd like him to get them all together Monday evening for a meeting at the residence. This would be after I'd had the chance to tour all the agencies I would be commanding.

As an afterthought, I told Rick to be here to leave with me at eight sharp, so he could help keep the information we doped out organized. He sounded thrilled to accompany me, and I was glad for the company.

Jason was gone for the night, so I shared my plans with the detail chief, and he left to take care of getting it cleared. He promised that his team would contact Rick, get the list, clear them for me, and let me know if any problems cropped up in the meantime.

Supper was late but satisfying, and sleep was much easier to corral than it was Saturday night.

For the first time since waking up in John Gray's body, I slept soundly without dreams, and woke refreshed.

Breakfast was finished, and I completed all the morning briefings before Rick arrived, so we went directly to Marine Two and headed for the EPA. As I stepped from the chopper, the Secretary was waiting with her entourage to give me the fifty-cent tour. I had an entirely different agenda, which I'd intentionally failed to share.

"Good morning, Madam Director," I said cheerily as we walked through the massive lobby. Looking around, I knew that there would dozens, if not hundreds of listening devices, planted all around me, some put there at the order of the Secretary, the rest placed by "others."

Steve Grosse had his unit had sweep the place both over the weekend and just before we arrived.

He reported numerous bugs were disabled but added, "Mr. Vice President, there are most assuredly other devices we didn't find, and several placed as we passed through. These are paranoid people, obsessed with knowing what others are saying, doing, and thinking."

It was a good bit of advice, and I intended to give the listeners an earful.

The Secretary was in full B.S. mode and would have driven the agenda right into the ground, so I took command. "Madam Director. We aren't here for a dog and pony show. Please understand my intention is to oversee a sea change around here that ends in all agencies tasked with national security and law enforcement operating as one team, instead of a gaggle of conflicted, ego-driven, paranoid units. EPA qualifies as it uses SWAT teams for various missions.

"To accomplish that, I am depending on you to shed the patina of business-as-usual and grab hold of the new agenda."

The Director was flabbergasted. She was expecting a quick tour, a nice snack, and for me to move on so she could to get back to building her empire. I threatened the whole castle by even suggesting that all federal agencies stop fighting and work together. That was not what she signed on to do, and she had no intention of cooperating, right out of the gate. "Mr. Vice President," she began, "The constitution is quite clear. The Director of a department of the Executive Branch does not answer to the Vice President's office. We run an autonomous operation, free of the political hackery that you claim to be trying to solve, so ... I will be getting back to work, and bid you a good day."

Before she could work up a full head of steam, I touched speed dial ONE on my phone, placed it on 'speaker, ' and a voice answered, "Yes, Mr. Vice President. The President is waiting for your call. I will put you right through."

Charles answered immediately. "John? Hope you had a good weekend. I see that your first stop wasn't cooperative, so – Madam Director, you are relieved."

Hosner, a holdover from the previous administration, was openly hostile, and typically under informed. "Mr. President, I will not be pushed around by you, or anyone else. The EPA is autonomous, and non-partisan..."

She got no farther. "Sorry to burst your little bubble, but I hire and fire the cabinet, and the Directors REPORT TO ME. I will deal with naming a replacement soon, but that's of no concern of yours. Agent Gross? As head of the Vice Presidential Secret Service Detail, please make sure the FORMER Director is off the premises within the next five minutes, or place her under arrest for trespassing on federal property."

He hung up without another word. What the windbag who used to be in charge of EPA didn't understand, and was just now beginning to see, was that the President wasn't taking prisoners. His agenda was real change, real improvement, and real performance. Business as usual wasn't going to cut it.

Former EPA Director Hosner was struck dumb, but allowed herself to be led away and off the premises. Word of what the President had done today would spread inside the beltway within seconds, and very much ahead of the news cycles, including the twenty-four hour news networks, which was our intent.

Steve led the way for Jason, Rick, and me, as well as my personal secretary, Janice Conklin. She took notes, Rick took notes, Jason took notes, and I took no prisoners.

As we passed through the lobby, guided by Assistant Director of Operations, Yadira Menendez, we asked the Undersecretary to quickly assemble the key managers for a brief address. She spoke into her iPhone, and excused herself to make sure her orders were carried out. Steve led the way, and we walked to the large meeting hall where I would speak to the heads as fast as they could be assembled.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I bring you best wishes from the President and his orders for this department. The President has directed me to lead the most aggressive re-visioning of EPA that has ever been undertaken. He wishes to oversee the complete overhaul of what has become a bureaucratic mess and change it into a streamlined, clearly tasked, efficient, and completely transparent agency that fulfills its stated mission to "Protect human Health and the Environment." This department will no longer use its resources to further political agendas, seek vengeance against perceived enemies of whatever administration is in charge, or prosecute people, corporations, and family farms, ranches, and orchards to no positive end.

"You all need to understand the end game. Our President will not tolerate any more waste of resources, tax money, or man-hours promoting, achieving, or attempting to do so of any agenda other than the mission of EPA. If you find that pulling in the horns of this agency and focusing solely on its mission is not your agenda, I tell you this - RIGHT NOW. Resign, retire, or transfer out of here. Like the former Director, who has been escorted off the premises, you will not have a happy ending to your employment.

"President Thornton is not posing. He intends to fix these troubled agencies and return them to being the responsive, responsible, and cooperative agencies that they were envisioned to be in the first place."

I let that all sink in, before continuing.

"Mr. Rick Parnell is heading a team that reports directly to me, as authorized and ordered by President Thornton. He and his teammates will present action plans for the re-engineering of your jobs, goals, plans, and processes.

"Make no mistake about it, people. Rick Parnell and his team are speaking for me, and my boss, the President. If you are tempted to buck the changes we are bringing, if you think you can bury the changes in bureaucracy, if you intend to sabotage, submarine, or frustrate this process, because that's what you always do, the exit doors will swing wide for you, and you will find yourself without a job and very soon!

"However, if you are tired of dysfunctional government, irresponsible actions, and arrogance on the part of public servants, you are right where you need to be, as long as you are willing to work to reverse those behaviors. We will hold every person collecting a federal government paycheck responsible for their actions and results.

"My advice is the same as the advice President Thornton gave me when he assigned this task to my office. "Get over yourself, and get to work!"

Without so much as a "have a nice day," I turned and walked out, with my entire entourage at my heels, and a scrambling Secret Service detail hurrying to keep up.

No one spoke until we were safely inside Marine Two, then Jason exhaled loudly and said,

"Well! That certainly was ... firm." He tried but couldn't hold back the giggles that turned into a belly laugh.

"I will give you long odds that every single EPA manager is literally shaking at their desk, right now, trying to figure out how bloody it will get before it settles down. Mr. Vice President, when you autodialed President Thornton, and he fired the Director of EPA in front her posse, you touched off an earthquake - not a tremor – a full blown quake, throughout the agency – and other agencies as well.

"They are terrified that if the President would fire the Director of EPA, for refusing to immediately comply with your request, they have no chance of surviving an all-out purge. Now they have only one choice, do it your way or get a real job, and none of them wants to buck the unemployment line with EPA as their only recent entry on a resume. Too many folks are out of work and resent the way government employment, especially when you consider 'contractors, ' has increased while private industry has laid off millions.