The Hammer of God

“Well, maybe if you could make that chicken dish with the sun dried tomatoes and the wine sauce… and maybe a little ziti with pesto on the side. Oh, and those cheesy croutons in a Caesar salad. Or with the blue cheese dressing if it’s too much trouble to make Caesar. Oh, and maybe you could steam some asparagus with that hollandaise sauce from the pouch?”

“From the pouch?”

“Hey, I don’t want you to go to too much trouble.”

“You don’t want me to go to too much trouble… but a little is okay?”

“Hey, you asked!”

“Go sit down, dreamboat, and the kitchen staff will have dinner ready in about an hour.”

“You sure it’s no trouble?”

“Ahhh, shut up, already.”

Bill went into his study. Now that the nuke was absent and accounted for, much of America got back to living a normal life. For the Hiccocks, that meant making plans to go up to New York. Bill had a speaking engagement up there and he needed to decommission Bridgestone and Ross, officially, face to face.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

Rendezvous With The Devil

When word came of the death of the Palestinian truck driver, it matched an account from B amp; R that their truck driver, Jamal, had dropped off what he thought were plumbing supplies at another truck in the desert driven by a Palestinian. Pictures of the dead man were confirmed as the driver to whom the “hot load” was transferred, by Jamal, who was now very grateful and talkative in return for American radiation therapy. Joey placed the report in the normal pile with a note reading “Possible route of Roosevelt Bomb” (which is what they were calling the exploded suitcase nuke now).

Ann climbed the steps of the Bedford Street subway stop. As she exited into the Williamsburg, Brooklyn night, past the chained bicycles, the pizza shops, and Polish restaurants, it took all of her will not to turn around to get back on the L train and back to Mark’s place. But she steeled herself and quickened her pace, as if the mere act of aggressively walking would change her resolve when she faced Gary. He would try to deny it, of course, but enough of her friends saw him with that tramp. She had to confront him or she could never look herself in the mirror again.

She met Gary at a Truth for 9/11 rally. Gary was fearless as he stood yelling at the top of his lungs “Bush knew! Cheney too! 9/11 was an inside job.” She remembered how he faced down a group of steelworkers who objected to his exercising his right to free speech by trying to muzzle him just because he was the lone, courageous voice crying out during the moments of silence and the ringing of the bells at the 9/11 ceremonies at Ground Zero.

Ann had seen the Internet videos and she was enamored with the likes of Sean Penn and Rosie O’Donnell who had the guts to say that fire couldn’t melt steel and reveal the truth that a missile hit the Pentagon, not a plane. Overall, she came to learn from Gary that the attack on the towers was planned to be a “New Pearl Harbor” by the neocons, who were mostly Jews, like Irving Kristol, Paul Wolfowitz, and Richard Armitage and who had been planning for war against Islam well before their propped up puppet, George Bush, stole an election and took power. She was disgusted over how they used the peaceful followers of the religion of Islam and activist Muslims as scapegoats, all the while denying them fundamental freedoms such as Habeas Corpus. With all these wrongs to right, things between Gary and Ann were great. Protesting by day and making out by night. But as soon as the protests became passe, Gary started to become less attentive, less involved…with her.