Two Peasants and a President (41 page)

In a move that would further endear him to the public but not to the White House, Senator Baines introduced a bill to lower the income tax.  It flew through the House.  The Senate felt it had little choice but to pass it.  The grand dream of a huge government expansion was now on life support.  With neither the continued sale of Treasuries to China nor the hoped for e
x
panded revenue from tax increases, the projected expenditure of future tri
l
lions and with it an insurmountable debt, had to be severely curtailed. 

It was, however, far from a rosy picture.  To most economists, it was clear that the wave of volunteerism was but a finger in a crumbling dike.  Jobs must produce goods and services that produce profit that in turn produces more jobs and more profit.  In short, the economy needed to grow.  Without sustainable growth a collapse was inevitable.  While the American public, for the most part, continued to pull together in a magnificent display of sel
f
lessness, it was like a ship, that in spite of all its pumps, was still taking on water.  The collective rage at what China had done, not only to American citizens, but to the economy and jobs would not alone be enough to avert a
catastrophe.  

China, while certainly hurting from the effects of the trade war, r
e
mained obstinate.  Its reserves of cash and saleable natural resources meant that it could weather the storm far longer than could the United States.
Even
Europe was feeling the pinch.  Americans could no longer afford to buy its products and there was considerable resentment that Europeans were still doing business with China.  This further dampened American appetites for European goods.  The trade war now threatened to go global. 

Senator Baines, realizing that killing the disease might also be killing the patient, came up with a plan.  It was an audacious gamble, but he could think of little if any downside.  Holly, it turned out, had not only shown e
x
traordinary spunk during her ordeal, but had also displayed it in a most co
n
vincing manner when she spoke in public.  Baines and his friends arranged for Holly to speak on European television in an attempt to persuade Europe to pull together with America to combat a mutual threat.  Any fool knew that China’s intent was to one day dominate everyone, not just the United States, so it would clearly be in Europe’s interest to form a block, that by its sheer size, could change the way in which China does business. 

Holly’s expression, when first told of the scheme, resembled a treed raccoon; the thought of speaking publicly in London, Paris, Frankfurt, Rome and Madrid was intimating to say the le
ast.  But like a treed raccoon
pr
o
tecting her young, she would take on a lion if that was what was required.  The very corporation depicted in the ad that had galvanized so many young people agreed to provide a private jet for her trip and an expert from Toas
t
masters, the public speaking group, to coach her along the way.  As the State Department stewed, the woman who
overnight had
become the United States’ most important diplomat mounted the steps of a Gulfstream jet, followed by her grandfather, husband and proud parents.  Only her parents realized that she was still haunted by her ordeal and worried that she might break down in front of an audience. 

Once aboard the plane, the person from Toastmasters skillfully showed Holly how to avoid the ah’s and um’s that ruin so many speeches, even those of people who make their living in front of the public.  Holly stood in the aisle of the Gulfstream, practicing her delivery, eye contact and gestures until they were second nature.  By the time Heathrow was a laptop stow away, she looked at the smiling faces of her family, took a deep breath and prepared to step off the plane and into the light of more than a dozen cameras. 

No one, least of all Holly, could have guessed how Londoners would respond to her plea.  These were people who had endured a relentless bombing, sleeping in subway tubes, nearly starved by an enemy to whom
compassion was a sign of weakness.  They understood the kind of courage that this young woman possessed, the determination to live whe
n others would have given up, an
d they responded with great affection. 

Overnight, the number of protesters outside the Chinese embassy grew from handfuls to hundreds.  ‘Invasion of the Body Snatcher’ T-shirts replete with a ghoulish caricature of the Chinese president blossomed all over the city.  More importantly, an effective boycott of Chinese goods was soon o
r
ganized.  In a touching gesture, a young fan presented Holly with a T-shirt, on it the letters: ‘My Second Honeymoon will be Much Better.’  Her family stood beaming as she expressed her thanks. 

By the time Holly climbed the steps of the Gulfstream jet again, she had become a fearless speaker.  Her innate enthusiasm and conviction, now honed to a fine point by a skilled speech coach, was a powerful force em
a
nating from a compact, youthful body that detracted not at all from the effect.  But in their diligence, the organizers of her upcoming appearances had widely publicized the schedule.  That, in r
etrospect, would prove to be a
tragic oversight.   

******

The sheer romance and majesty of Paris was impossible to ignore.  It was simply the most beautiful city she had ever seen, which made focusing on the mission even more challenging.  The speech was to be given in the courtyard of the Louvre where a striking, seventy foot tall glass pyramid r
e
sides.  Ironically, it was designed by a Chinese architect, though by 1935 he had already left China. 

Due to the design of the original Louvre building, its entrance had been deemed insufficient structurally to continue to withstand the enormous number of visitors crossing its threshold every day.  The pyramid provided a spectacular new entrance that first descended into a spacious mall beneath it and then up into the original Louvre building. 

By the time Holly arrived, a large crowd had gathered, her popularity in Britain having already spread to France.  In as much as only two gendarmes were visible in the crowd, her military family took matters into their own hands.  Raymond stayed nearby at all times, while her father, mother and the captain roamed the crowd looking for anything out of place.  

Holly looked absolutely stunning on this beautiful April evening, her white dress framed like a spring blossom by the sparkling glass pyramid gracing one of the most romantic edifices on the planet.  Her speeches in London had imparted a confidence that enhanced her lovely, engaging smile. 
The Paris crowd had swelled since her arrival and stood in obvious anticip
a
tion of her words. 

“It started with a magnificent evening, much like the one we are e
n
joying tonight in Paris,” she began.  “But what had been planned as a r
o
mantic cruise became a hideous nightmare beyond our imagination.  No honeymoon cake would be served on that cruise.  In fact, those responsible intended instead to carve my husband and me into pieces and to sell them to the highest bidder.  Fortunately, the ghouls who kidnapped us did not bargain on a certain retired navy captain, who happens to be my grandfather and who pursued them all the way to the city of Tianjin.”

“With the help of a group of very brave Chinese dissidents and a doctor who would no longer stand for what was going on in the most prestigious hospital in that city, my grandfather spirited us out of China on a wooden fishing boat belonging to a courageous Chinese family.  The government of that nation, so fearful that the world might learn the dark secrets of Tianjin, sent its navy to stop us.  Great warships bristling with guns and missiles fanned out across the Yellow Sea in pursuit of two American newlyweds on a wooden boat, intending to silence them forever.”

As the crowd warmed to Holly, the captain and Jim moved around its periphery scanning faces or hands that might reveal someone who had not come to listen. 

“In what is perhaps our greatest disappointment,” Holly continued, “the White House and apparently the head of our own government chose to a
b
dicate his responsibility to protect its citizens.  Instead they elected to cover up this atrocity in order to protect their banker, China.  They made every effort to keep our brave Chinese friends from telling their story and, I suspect, would have returned them to China if our military and CIA had not come to our aid.”

“Tonight I share this with you and with the world in order to protect those who bravely helped us from retribution from some in our own go
v
ernment.”

Jim noticed a dark-haired young man who seemed nervous, this in an unlikely setting for a bout of nerves.  Perhaps the man is ill; perhaps it is his nature to be timid and nervous; perhaps it is something else entirely.  The former Navy Seal carefully moved closer, noting that the man’s hands were in the pockets of his windbreaker, this on a warm spring evening.  

“Tonight, I come to ask you a favor,” Holly said, “not for myself, not for my family, but for citizens everywhere who may not realize that China is undergoing an enormous military buildup, that China is leasing and buying enormous tracts in every corner of the planet, tracts that contain critical
minerals and oil, resources that will one day be needed by all of us.  I do not believe that there is any coincidence in these actions.  I believe that it is part of their plan to one day dictate to the world.” 

“When their military is powerful enough, when they have gathered sufficient resources, I believe that they intend to show us what Mao
Tse
Tung
me
ant when he said: “
Power flows from the barrel of a gun
.”
  I ask you all tonight to resist in the only peaceful way we have, which is by boycotting Chinese products.”

Jim had slipped to within six feet of the nervous man when suddenly his shoulder jerked his arm upward, pulling a pistol from his pocket.  As the
ex-
Seal charged forward
,
the barrel of the pistol came level with Holly and flame erupted from it in a bright flash.  Holly went down as the second shot shattered a glass pane on the pyramid behind her.  Jim’s hands surrounded the man’s wrist and the gun, but not before a third shot rang out, this time striking a young boy in the crowd.

The man was strong, very strong.  The former Seal had been well-trained in armed and unarmed combat and, in spite of the years, was still in excellent shape, which told him that this man was also highly trained and probably at least fifteen years younger.  The next thing Jim saw was a boot flying past his face.  Then the shooter’s head snapped backward, blood spurting from his broken nose.  Another kick left the young man reeling in semi-consciousness as Jim ripped the pistol from his hands.  Several males from the crowd
had
surrounded the shooter, kicking him in the head and chest.

As the beating continued, Jim raced to Holly who was now cradled in her mother’s arms, blood streaming down the side of her head. 

“Oh my God,” he said, as he fell to his knees beside his daughter.  Sally was still yelling for a doctor as the first sounds of sirens were heard in the distance.  Two armed security guards from the museum had appeared, guns drawn, and were talking into their radios as Ray ran out of the museum carrying a first aid kit.  Medics pushed through crowd but had paused next to the shooter when captain Davis grabbed the arms of one and propelled him toward his granddaughter.  The other medic knelt by the young boy who was clearly beyond help. 

“Can you hear me, baby?” said Ray, kneeling beside his wife, holding a gauze pad against the side of her head.  There was no response.  Some in the crowd had fled when shots rang out, but others milled about wringing their hands, faces streaked with grief. 

The medic kneeling beside Holly saw
that the gauze pad had temp
o
rari
ly staunched the bleeding.  The other medic arrived next to him and t
o
gether they preppe
d her for transport.   All
they would say was that she was
still alive.  She was soon in an ambulance and on the way to a Paris hospital.

The crowd had been so incensed by the attack on the young woman that they continued
to
launch vicious kicks at the shooter’s unconscious body until police pulled them away, by which time he was a bloody pulp.  He would later be pronounced dead at the hospital and with no identification on his person, authorities could only hope that his finger prints or the gun would yield something.  All that was certain was that he would not be talking to anyone. 

When the first news reports reached the United States, most Americans were appalled.  Even the normally venomous left was, at least for now, silent and not gloating over the tragedy.  Those who truly understood the peril of the economy wondered if their last hope had been silenced. 

Once Holly had been stabilized in the emergency room, the trauma surgeon carefully removed the blood-soaked gauze pad.  The wound, while bloody, showed no indication that the skull had been penetrated.  The bullet had struck a glancing blow, enough to knock Holly out but not enough induce swelling of the brain or other serious trauma.  As her worried family stood at the foot of her bed, the spunky young lady opened her eyes for the first time.  Her puzzled gaze quickly gave way to a weak smile as she saw her family gathered around her.