The Devlin Deception: Book One of The Devlin Quatrology (34 page)

“Just a start. Would you put some sunscreen on my back?”

“I'd be happy to … hope it's not that greasy, oily
stuff.”

“Nope, this is the creamy kind.”

“Okay, then. Let's go.”

Jill and Carie looked at each other, smiled and said, almost
simultaneously, “This may be good.”

Sharon broke in with, “Damn well better be.”

-63-

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

9:05 a.m. Local time

Lugano, Switzerland

An extremely obese woman using the name Michele sidled up to an
equally obese man waiting at the Biblioteca Cantonale and said, “Do
you know what 'Svizzera' means?”

The man replied, “'Sauna,' I believe.”

Michele responded, “Actually, it's 'Switzerland.' 'Sauna'
would be 'schvitz.'”

“Okay, um, Michele,” he said, looking at a card in his
hand, “I'm here and I left the key in the largest snowbank next
to the ticket counter outside the train station.”

“I know,” she replied. “Our associate has already
picked up the deposit and the target information from the locker.”

“So we're all set?”

(The remainder of this conversation closely duplicated the ones
between Missy, the Andorran's rep, and the lobbyist's rep in Bangkok,
and between Andreana, the Reaper's rep, and the televangelist's rep
in Arlington, Virginia, USA.

In this one, Michele represented The Linguist and the man represented
a gaggle of environmentalists, tree-huggers and flower-fondlers from
around the world; they reached precisely the same terms as the
previous two.

The target was the same in all three.)

-64-

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

9:35 a.m. EST

The White House

Washington, DC

Emily escorted the four disheveled union bosses and their equally
haggard-looking lawyers into the Oval Office, surrounded by both
guards and Secret Service agents. Donne, looking bright-eyed and
bushy-tailed in his crisp denim jeans and newly ironed tropical
shirt, smiled at the seven men and one woman.

“Lady, gentlemen, today you are all free to go; you have served
your sentences … well, most of them; this is an early release.
We need the space now.”

Ms. Skinner was the first to speak. “Sir, we are going to
object to this forced --”

“Object all you want, ma'am. File whatever kinds of suits you
choose. But remember that in addition to owning the executive and
legislative branches, I also own … and am … the
judicial branch.

“Without getting too arcane … and I know you lawyer
types love to get into as much arcanity as you can … any
efforts you make will be immediately shot down, no matter what court
you choose for your venue.”

“We will be filing our objection with the World Court, Mr.
Donne. Under international law, what you have done to us violates all
levels of due process and constitutes human rights violations of the
most serious --”

“Sit down and shut up, lady. Right there.” He pointed
to a chair.

She remained standing with her group.

“Okay, then. Emily, return this entire group to their cells
for another two weeks. We'll squeeze the newbies into the other
cells, and we'll have to find some more space somewhere for the
overflow.”

One of the agents said, “Mr. Donne, we have some additional
cells in the basement of the EOB, Executive Office Building.”

“Enough for these eight?”

“Yes, sir; room for three times that.”

“And are those Level A accommodations?”

“No, sir; Level C, and some Level D.”

“Well, I think that's appropriate for these folks.

“Emily, take them over to those cells, the Level D's, and begin
them on the lower level diet, as well.”

“Tofu plus, sir?”

Donne nodded.

“With pleasure, sir.

“Gentlemen, lady, follow me. Guards.”

Once they had all left the Oval Office, Donne wriggled around in his
shirt, crumpling it where he could reach, and rubbed his hands on his
jeans, trying unsuccessfully to get rid of the creases.

Emily returned and said, “They're on their way; Tom and Lin
will get them all settled in and get them their jumpsuits. I do like
the paisley for the men and madras for the woman.”

“Good, good. Now I guess it's time for the next batch. Are
they ready?”

“Standing by, well guarded.”

Donne sat back down, picked up some papers and said, “Showtime,
Emily. Bring 'em in.”

“Right away, Gordy,” she replied, chuckling.

“Oh, Emily, no more starch in this stuff,” Donne said,
smiling.

“I'll tell Shawn.” She smiled and nodded. “Here
we go.”

She returned a few minutes later, escorting nine men and eight women,
accompanied by three guards and three Secret Service agents. Donne
stayed seated behind his desk, inspecting each of the 17 new arrivals
closely as the guards lined them up in three rows in front of his
desk.

“Welcome, ladies and gentlemen,” Donne began, smiling his
brightest smile. “Before we begin, I'd like to remind you all
of an old quote from a noted, but disreputable, figure from America's
past, specifically the time of Prohibition.

“His name was Alphonse Capone, and the quote I'm referencing
was this: 'You can get more with a smile --'” Donne paused for
a good ten seconds -- “'and a gun --'” he paused again,
for maybe two seconds – “'than you can with just a
smile.' Now some history.

“My grandpappy was a Texas Ranger at a time when this Capone
clown was thinking about expanding the reach of his Chicago mob into
Texas.

“In the early '30s, Capone sent a bunch of his guys as a sort
of advance party down to the Lone Star State, and they started
raising all sorts of hell in one area up in the Panhandle, scaring
the locals out of their wits and extorting protection money from the
businesses in the area.

“Well, my grandpappy was part of a team that got sent up there
to deal with these Chicago clowns and courteously invite them to go
back up north and never return to Texas.

“But you know something? These mugs were not all that open to
a courteous invitation, in spite of the fine smiles that all of the
Rangers had on their faces. In fact, they responded with guns to the
Rangers' smiles. That was the last mistake they made in Texas.

“Now, none of them died there on the scene, but they all
scooted back north with at least a little bit of good ol' Texas lead
somewhere in their anatomies, which made the scooting a little more
painful than normal scooting would be. And since it was February,
also a little colder.

“A lot of that lead came from my grandpappy's trusty revolvers;
he always carried four of them. He emptied 'em all in that little
gunfight, smiling all the time. And he never got a scratch on him.

“While good ol' Al believed in a smile and a gun, the Rangers
believed in a smile and more guns, more than the bad guys had.

“The rangers bandaged all the wounded, packed 'em up and sent
'em on their way, with one very clear message for that Capone dude,
which was very simple.

“'Do not ever try to rip off the people of Texas, in any way,
shape or form, or you will face the consequences.' What was not
included in the message was that he and his team were the
consequences. He felt that Mr. Capone was bright enough to infer
that from the battered wounded bodies that greeted him when he met
the train in Chicago.

“What those mugs told Capone is lost to history, but whatever
it was, it was enough to convince the mobster to keep his operations
out of the fine state of Texas.

“Now, my grandpappy may have embellished that story a wee bit
here and there, but the moral of the story, and the reason I'm
telling it to all of you, is that trying to rip off people brings
with it serious consequences. In his case he was protecting the
people of Texas, in my case, the people of the entire United States
of America, especially in their roles as taxpayers, consumers,
retirees and Medicare and Medicaid clients.

“And you 17 people have been ripping off the people I'm sworn
to protect for years, you six with your over-priced mobility devices
that you bill to Medicare and private insurance companies; you four
with your reverse mortgages with hidden charges and outrageous
interest rates; you five with your upcoding in your bills to Medicare
and to private insurance companies; and you two with your over-priced
and under-performing catheters and other so-called 'medical supplies'
for diabetics and incontinents.

“Now, you 17 are only the first of hundreds of your ilk that we
are tracking down and bringing in to face the consequences. And I am
the cutting edge of those consequences.

“The first consequence is that, although you can expect due
process, that due process is not necessarily a court process, but is
the process as I define it, wearing the three hats that I wear as the
owner of this country.

“And I find you all guilty of multiple ripoffs of the people of
this country, including failure to report and pay your Al Capone tax
in just the past two days, as well as since the first of this year.
Your appeals of those convictions will fall on deaf ears …
mine, wearing my hat as the Supreme Court.

“As part of your punishment, I have confiscated all of your
personal and business assets; you will keep your liabilities. Good
luck with those.

“Additionally, you are all sentenced to ten years in federal
prison, with no parole, no time off for good behavior, and no Club
Fed environment. It'll be hard labor.

“No, no; no arguments … unless you want to have another
five years added for contempt.

“Guards, take these people down to the cellblock while we
arrange for transport to the appropriate prisons. Keep them out of
the Level A and B cells. Thank you.

“Ladies and gentlemen, I also thank you for your service, as we
will be using you as widely-publicized examples for any others who
have done what you have done and think they can continue to get away
with it.

“Not that everybody in your businesses is crooked, by the way.
But like lawyers, 99.9 percent of you give the rest a bad name.

“Enjoy your stay with us – oh, you will each be billed
for room and board for the days you are here. Of course, with no
assets left, I don't know how you'll pay for that, and frankly, I
don't give a damn.

“Take them away, guards.”

After the door had closed behind them, Donne said, “Cissy,
Cody, c'mon in.”

Another door opened and they entered, following Donne and Emily to
the couches in the center of the office.

“Questions, problems, concerns? Cissy?”

“No, Gordy, I think you did just fine with that.'”

“Cody?”

“Well, Gordy, as we discussed, there'll be lots of backlash and
lots of perps trying to move their assets out of your reach, as well
as trying to churn up opposition to you personally.”

“Anything else?”

“Nope, I think that's it. We discussed the other stuff
before.”

“Good. I hope they do try to move assets; makes it so easy to
flag 'em, stop 'em and redirect 'em to the Treasury. And it makes it
even easier to track the coding back to find out the originators, get
'em out of the woodwork, like cockroaches coming out when you turn
the lights on.

“Which reminds me, Emily. Tony's all set to do his Jimmy
routine for these folks. Spray for bugs about – let's see;
it's almost ten now, so about noon. And then release the roaches
about nine p.m.”

“Okay, Gordy. Like Lisbon.”

“You got it. And they'll all probably enjoy some of your
oddball salads; I'll leave the choice on that up to you.”

Emily smiled and replied, “I'll do my best.” The other
three all chuckled.

“Good, good.

“Cody, how are you doing on the China directive?”

“I'm still running the possible outcomes of that … and
there are tons of variables to consider ... but from my work so far,
I think we'll need to hold off for a year or two, until our domestic
economy is a good ways further into recovery.”

“Cody, I think we need to put that in place in nine months to a
year, max; narrow window there. But I agree we need to wait till our
economy's stronger. I think we can do that in my time frame, though.
We'll have to adjust that as the numbers start to come in. Keep at
it.”

“Sure will, Gordy.”

“Cissy, any hubris problems with that?”

“Only on your public image and the backlash. Standing alone,
no problems. I'll be sure the social media teams are prepping for
that, as well as all the other stuff.”

“Good, good.

“Emily, any other appointments today?”

“Nope, Gordy; I cleared your calendar. Tomorrow's full,
though.”

“Good, good.

“Okay, gang; that's it. Now I've got some work to do, so
scamper away.” They all did and Donne returned to his desk and
his very full inbox, which he divided into his usual two piles in
less than an hour and then lay down for a long-overdue and
well-deserved nap. “Tofu plus; hope they enjoy it. And I hope
there's a lot of starch in their jumpsuits.”

-65-

Five Months Earlier

Sunday, August 14, 2011

11:15 a.m.

Bonita Beach, Florida

“Oh, this feels wonderful, Jake.”

“Doesn't it, though? I'll tell you, I set a goal of twenty
minutes, but usually I can only last maybe seven or eight.”

“I think you lasted nearly twelve or thirteen. Bravo.”

“Well, you made it easier.”

“Oh, I didn't do all that much.”

“It was enough. And we were interrupted.

“Now, if you can just lean back a little more, we can continue
from where we left off.”

“Like this? Or more?”

“Just a tiny bit more … there; perfect. Okay for you?”

“Wonderful. Ahhhh. God, Jake, you're good.”

“I'm kinda rusty; learned that move way back in college.”