The Gentile Witness, Enoch Book 1: Enoch (30 page)

Chapter 117

9:15 AM CST Day four of 1260 Kansas City, Missouri - Hallway of City Center, 2
nd
Floor

Roger was pissed that this totally unknown man a few days ago would even dare talk to him like that. He was seething and the anger was getting to his senses. He knew he had to calm down. He walked down the hall away from the conference room and started dialing his office in hopes of catching his Chairman of the Board, Richard Sterling.

“Hello Mr. Sterling’s office, this is Shannon, may I help you?”

“Shannon, this is Roger. I am in Kansas City and it is very important I talk to Dick.”

“He is in a meeting Roger.”

“Slip him a note. It is very important I talk to him.”

“Please hold.”

Roger thought to himself, where do they get some of the people who answer telephones. It is always, ‘they are in a meeting’ or ‘they just left’, and so on. Gatekeepers, that is what they are, nothing but gatekeepers.

Shannon came back on the line, “Please hold Roger. I will transfer you to him. He needs to go to his private office. It will be just a moment.”

“Thanks Shannon.” He wanted to call her something else, but thought better of it.

In a few moments he heard him come on the line, “Roger, how are things in Kansas City? I assume you took care of business.”

“No, I have not Dick. This Jack South sort of threatened me and I am at a loss of what to do at this point.” I told him what had transpired in the negotiations, and the threats, by Jack.

“Alright Roger, give me a few minutes. I will call you back. I need to make another call.”

“Thanks Dick, I will be here.”

Chapter 118

10:25 AM CEST Day four of 1260 Boston, Massachusetts - Sterling Insurance Company Corporate Office

Sterling picked up the phone and dialed the special cell phone number he knew was a secure line that would ring directly to Aafre in Kansas City. Aafre had gotten there last night and were in the same hotel as Jack and his group. He was not looking forward to this call, at least with the results he had from Roger. Aafre hated being, told no. There were usually consequences if he was, told bad news. The telephone rang and on the third ring, he could hear Aafre’s voice say, “Hello?”

“Sterling here sir, I needed to call you to bring you up to date.”

“I was expecting your call Sterling. Nice to hear from you, especially since I know you do not hesitate to call immediately when it is bad news.”

How does he know it is bad news, thought Sterling? I have not even said anything yet. “Well sir, it appears we have a problem with the increased premium and Mr. South has threatened us.” He went on to tell him the events as Roger had told him.

After he was through explaining the events to him, Aafre said, “I know all about the conversation Sterling. I heard the entire thing while it was happening, but I wanted to hear your take. We have the meeting room bugged and we heard the entire conversation. Jack is getting interesting it appears. He does have some balls. Too bad we didn’t get him before they did, huh Sterling?”

“Yes sir, he seems to be pretty sharp sir.”

“That is true, but in most circumstances, I would have called his bluff. It would not be a good idea in this instance however. We are having our meeting here tomorrow and Saturday. He is right, they would burn down the city, and we would be paying out the limits of the policy. Therefore, it would be a bad decision to call him on it. I doubt he would cancel, but on the other hand, he may well have done so. I think he knows we are here and he probably knows we had something to do with the insurance thing. So call your man and tell him to take the million and go home.” He paused, then said, “Anything else Sterling?”

“No sir, nothing else.”

“Well have a good day and we will talk again soon.”

After I hung up, I could feel the perspiration on my forehead. I felt shaken up. Aafre’s people had the room bugged and knew even before I called what had happened. It was a good thing that I knew the whole story and had enough sense to tell it verbatim to Aafre. If Roger had varied the story any at all to me, the repercussions from Aafre would not be something I would care to experience.

I picked up the phone and dialed Rogers’s cell phone.

Chapter 119

9:35 AM CST Day four of 1260 Kansas City, Missouri - City Center Meeting Room, 2
nd
Floor

The meeting was progressing and they had discussed logistics regarding the use of Arrowhead, Royals Stadium, and the Sprint Center. Then we covered the Jumbotrons and there placement, and general information regarding how to accommodate five million people. I had noticed that the Colonel said little and continued to stare at me. I looked him over myself and what I saw was a career military man close to my age maybe a bit older than me. He had a long face and short military style gray hair. He had gray eyes and was not really that tall, maybe 5’10”, or so. He had a scar running down the left side of his face, which I assumed was from injuries caused by combat. He was dressed in Army fatigues and boots and sat ramrod straight. There was something about him though that bothered me and I was not sure what it was, but I knew he did interest me.

Madeline, the Mayor, was in her late 50’s, attractive and very intelligent. I thought to myself that the people from the Pendergast machine, from the 20’s, would be all rolling over in their graves if they knew Kansas City elected a woman mayor. She was all business and seemed to know her stuff. She was also pleasant and easy to talk too. You could tell she was firm. She had a knack of making sure she got her point across without being overwhelming. Good choice I thought, I would have probably voted for her if I still lived here.

The door opened and our insurance man, Roger entered.

“I hope I am not interrupting anything,” he said.

Madeline turned to him and said, “No, we were just going over some details. Did you make your call?” she asked.

“Yes ma’am I did,” as he went over to his seat and sat down.

“And?”

“I spoke with the chairman of the Board of our holding company.  He has instructed me to accept the additional premium of a million dollars in lieu of the other amount that was, suggested. Therefore, I wanted to pass this on to you and see if I could get it now. Then I will be on my way and you can continue your business.”

“Good Roger, and yes we can take care of that I assume,” as she looked at me.

Hmm, I thought, she was ready to write out a check for 25 million a few minutes ago, and leave me with the other 75. Now, she wanted me to pay the million.

“Not a problem,” I said to Roger. “But I don’t keep checks with me. If you like,” as I pulled out my wallet, “you can charge it to my Bank Card and it will clear, and I can get some more miles on my card.”

“A million dollars on a card?” he said.

“It’s either that or give my attorney Mark here an invoice and he will fax it to the office today. They can either wire the money or send a check, whichever you would prefer.”

“I can write an invoice,” he said as he opened his briefcase, pulled out a form, and started filling it out.

Madeline then said, “It’s a good time for a break if everyone else is in agreement. Let’s say we meet back here around 10:15 or so.”

We all agreed and the participants started drifting out the door. I looked over at Veronica and asked, “Is it okay, do you think, if I go down to the restaurant. I would like to and get some fresh coffee or something, or am I still a prisoner?” I then pulled a pair of big sunglasses out of my pocket, and put them on and said, “I got a real good disguise.”

The remaining people, even including Roger, the insurance man, laughed. Veronica smiling, said, “We will go with you Jack,” and off we went.

Chapter 120

9:45 AM CST Day four of 1260 Kansas City, Missouri - City Center, Lobby Coffee Shop

We left Mark to deal with the insurance person. Luke, John, Thomas, Veronica, and I went to the elevator. I started talking and Veronica held her finger up to her mouth and said, “Shh.” We then got on the elevator and no one said anything. We only had one floor to go down so the elevator popped open almost it seemed as soon as we got on it. As we walked off the elevator Veronica said, “The reason I asked you to not say anything, is that the room we are in and the hallway are bugged big time. They must have done it in a hurry for it was obvious to anyone with a trained eye.”

“Well you know your business. You proved that in Israel with our jet.”

We moved over to what appeared as a coffee shop to the right of the check in desk. As were walking, I took notice of my surroundings. There was a military and police presence everywhere. Only one of the front doors was, being, used. The, others were locked. There was both a metal detector and one of those luggage machines that are, used in airports. There was even a chemical detector. Off to the right of that was a curtained off area, which I assumed may be for strip-searching. The military walked around with M16s in firing position, which means they were in their hands not strapped to their shoulders. It looked like a third world country to me, and that was scary.

I looked over to Veronica and said, “All this security for me?”

“No Jack. It is for all the dignitaries coming here and the President. In addition, many of the people coming for The Waldger Group’s meeting are already here and will be attending your Sermon tonight. It’s to keep them safe, not you.”

“Hmm,” I said, “and here I thought it was just for me.” I felt left out.

“You’re on a roll today,” Veronica said.

We walked up to the host, at the restaurant and Veronica took charge. “Table for six please,” she said to the hostess, “and I want the one over there against the wall if that’s okay?”

“Yes ma’am,” the hostess said, as she grabbed six menus, and said, “Follow me please.”

As we sat down, and were looking at the menus, I could feel the stares all around the restaurant. I guess the sunglass trick was not working. I looked over at Veronica and said, “Where did Gabriel go?”

“He had to leave,” she said. “He just wanted to make sure you knew he was around.”

Luke, John, and Thomas, almost at the same time said, “I didn’t see anyone called Gabriel in the meeting. What are you talking about?”

“The messengers, remember I talked about them in my interview in New York, on TV?” I said.

“So what you are telling us Jack,” Thomas said. “Is you can see him and we cannot?”

“That’s right Thomas. You are correct.”

“That’s spooky,” Luke said.

I smiled and said, “Maybe someday soon you too will see him Luke, for I am sure you will. So where are we with the planning and how much longer is this meeting going to last with the city?”

“Shouldn’t be much longer Jack,” John said. “They are just going over details; this is a first for them. A lot of what needed to be covered, Luke, the Reverend, and I had already discussed with them earlier in the week. I think you are in there only because they are curious about you. After the insurance thing, I think they want to hire you.”

This was great, same old story, feast, or famine. A few weeks ago, I could not find a job. Now everyone wants to hire me, I thought. I said, “Glad the meeting is almost over. I really dislike long meetings.”

We all looked up and saw Mark coming over to the table. He took his seat; we all exchanged our pleasantries, as the server came over. You could see she was very nervous and I knew she wanted to say something. I saw her nametag and said, “Hi Debbie, let me introduce myself. I am Jack South and these are my friends.”

I held out my hand to her and she blushed, shook my hand, and said, “Nice to meet you Mr. South,” then followed up with, “May I take your orders?”

We all ordered some rolls, coffee, and various juices. Then Mark said, “How was Israel Jack?”

“It is a beautiful country, if you like desert, rocks, caves, and the local hospitality.”

“I know. I had to track down the President to get him to intervene. I guess the Attorney General had a hard on for you. Uh, excuse me Veronica, he said blushing.”

“It’s okay Mark. I have heard a whole lot worse. It doesn’t bother me.”

“So are you ready for tonight?” Thomas asked.

“I suppose I should ask you if you are ready. You are the one handling the logistics of everything. All I am doing is talking.”

“I meant for your sermon,” Thomas said.”

“Yes it is Thomas, very ready. And later today I would like to meet with you personally to go over it and get your opinion.”

“Sure, I’d be happy to Jack.”

The server came back over with the coffee and drinks. She was smiling and still blushing all at the same time. I am sure after she left here today she would tell the story repeatedly of how I talked to her and shook her hand. This is one soul we, will get, I thought to myself smiling.

“Jack,” John said. “I wanted to let you know that we are ready with everything as we discussed, including the slow motion cameras. I still don’t know what they are for.”

“Just keep the cameras on me John. You will eventually know what they were for. And let me add, I won’t say anything more about it.”

“Okay,” John said, “Also the graphics you sent down, we have scanned in and I have one of my engineers that will split the screen when you talk about them.”

“Thanks John. Did you figure out what they were?”

“No I did not. Looks like Mayan carvings of some sort.”

“They are the handwriting of God. They are what the Israelis wanted from me. They knew I had them and they kept the originals.  We just have copies.”

“Can you read them?”

“I did not know I could until they were shown to me under unusual circumstances. Then my brain clicked in and yes I could read them.”

“What are they Jack?” Thomas asked.

“They were part of my sermon tonight, but I’m still not sure. I may not use them until my next sermon. It’s still up in the air.”

John then said, “Luke has set up the internet feed in over one-hundred languages for broadcast. We will stream directly to their servers and the delay should only be about fifteen to twenty seconds. This way people who do not have access to TV in their area, for some countries are trying to block it, will be able to participate. We also will have the broadcast available afterwards for people to see. We will keep it up there for a week or so, or keep it up until there are no more hits. They can also log in from mobile Smartphone’s and get the stream from Bearnewsupdate.com. So I think we have it pretty well covered.” He paused, and continued speaking, “As I said before, once you start Jack, there will be no commercials. There may be commentary at times, sort of like a golf match.”

John took a sip of juice then continued. “Just so you all know, I am using my co-anchors, Mary Ann Sinclair and Geraldo Vasquez for this one. They came in this afternoon and we will be having a rehearsal in about an hour or so. Anything I need to know in particular Jack that you may be doing, like blowing something up, making fire come from the sky, or anything like that?”

“No John,” I said, “but to tell you the truth, I really don’t know what is going to happen.” Even though I knew, that Gabriel said someone was going to try to assassinate me tonight. It seemed strange, but it did not bother me, for it should. Was my faith growing?